Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
The Abnormal Is Not Courage
The Poles rode out from Warsaw against the German
Tanks on horses. Rode knowing, in sunlight, with sabers,
A magnitude of beauty that allows me no peace.
And yet this poem would lessen that day. Question
The bravery. Say it's not courage. Call it a passion.
Would say courage isn't that. Not at its best.
It was impossib1e, and with form. They rode in sunlight,
Were mangled. But I say courage is not the abnormal.
Not the marvelous act. Not Macbeth with fine speeches.
Not the marvelous act, but the evident conclusion of being.
Not strangeness, but a leap forward of the same quality.
Accomplishment. The even loyalty. But fresh.
Not the Prodigal Son, nor Faustus. But Penelope.
The thing steady and clear. Then the crescendo.
The real form. The culmination. And the exceeding.
Not the surprise. The amazed understanding. The marriage,
Not the month's rapture. Not the exception. The beauty
That is of many days. Steady and clear.
It is the normal excellence, of long accomplishment.
-Jack Gilbert
Gilbert has several books. One is *Refusing Heaven,* available here:
http://tinyurl.com/o8kwn
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September 20, 2006
http://www.freewillastrology.com
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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 at 8:30, sharing the night with four great authors:
Peter Beagle, Judy Budnitz, Charlie Anders, and Sona Avakian
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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
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SUBTERRANEAN PRONOIA THERAPY
Experiments and exercises in becoming a rebelliously kind, affably
unpredictable, insanely poised Master of Supernal Mischief.
[continued from last week's newsletter]
8. Declare amnesty for the part of you that you don't love very well.
Forgive that poor sucker. Hold its hand and take it out to dinner and a
movie. Tactfully offer it a chance to make amends for the dumb things it
has done. And then do a dramatic reading of this proclamation by the
playwright Theodore Rubin: "I must learn to love the fool in me—the one
who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins
sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and
gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone
protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I
also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and
dignity but for my fool."
9. Some readers of my weekly column complain when I draw inspiration
from a public figure they consider a bad person. Once I cited philosopher
Bertrand Russell, and Pat G. went ballistic: "Russell was a terrible father!
How dare you give him any credence?" Another time I invoked the
wisdom of ex-U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt. "What possessed you to
quote such a militaristic bully?" wrote Arthur H. Here's how I respond to
these grumbles: If I refused to learn from people unless I agreed with
everything they had ever said and done, I would never learn from anyone.
What about you? Have you set up your life so that everyone is either on
or off your good list? If so, try something new: Cultivate a capacity to
derive help and insight from people who aren't perfect.
10. "We are attracted to people who express the qualities we deny or
repress in ourselves," says creativity expert Shakti Gawain. Using this idea
as your hypothesis, take an inventory of the people you're most drawn
to. Ask yourself whether they have talents and dreams that you wish
could come alive in you. If you find this to be the case, consider the
possibility that it's time to claim those talents or dreams as your own.
11. Philosopher William James proposed that if our culture ever hoped to
shed the deeply ingrained habit of going to war, we'd have to create a
moral equivalent. It's not enough to preach the value of peace, he said.
We have to find other ways to channel our aggressive instincts in order to
accomplish what war does, like stimulate political unity and build civic
virtue.
Astrology provides a complementary perspective. Each of us has the
warrior energy of the planet Mars in our psychological make-up. We can't
simply repress it, but must find a positive way to express it. How you
might go about this project?
12. Dealing with your shadow may require superhuman levels of patient
objectivity. The experience may be like having to maintain a neutral tone
of voice as you speak the language of diplomacy during negotiations with
the inscrutable leader of a guerrilla enemy that is carrying out covert
attacks against your most vulnerable sanctuaries.
On rare occasions, though, you may get a more direct opportunity to
disarm your shadow. The following anecdote is an example. Study it as a
metaphor for the approach you might try one day.
While still a young man, the medieval English king Richard was captured
and imprisoned by his enemy Modard. For many days he languished alone
in his cell, barely fed and having no blanket to warm him at night.
One morning he awoke to the sound of growling. His jailers had brought a
full-grown male lion to the cell. They opened the door and brought the
beast in, whereupon they cut off the leather muzzle binding its jaws and
scurried out, leaving Richard to fend for himself against the lion.
Freed from its constraint, the beast reared back and unleashed a roar.
Without wasting a moment in useless fear, Richard leaped forward and
jammed his arm down the throat of the lion. Thrusting all the way into its
chest, he ripped out its heart, killing it instantly.
13. In a radio interview, a former remote-viewer for the U.S. military was
asked how his personal life had changed as his psychic skills had grown.
"There were secrets my conscious and subconscious minds had been
waiting for years to tell each other," he said, "and as my telepathic power
improved, I found they no longer wanted to wait."
Try to accomplish this yourself. Imagine that the barriers between your
everyday awareness and your deep self are crumbling. Act as if you are
developing an ever-increasing ability to read your own mind.
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To read other news and features from my book, go here:
http://snipurl.com/l9o3
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
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
DANCING ON CRUTCHES
A short documentary on Bill Shannon, who's a skateboard-hip-hop dancer
and choreographer. He dances on crutches, and his nickname is
Crutchmaster.
http://tinyurl.com/p2qnf
THE BEST PRONOIAC MAGAZINE I KNOW
Ode Magazine
http://www.odemagazine.net/
STORY-TELLING THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING
*Alchemy of Fire: Libido and the Divine Spark* by Michael Meade
http://tinyurl.com/erdzj
and
http://www.mosaicvoices.org/
"The deepest threats come not from uncivilized instincts and libido;
rather they arise from received ideas and fixed attitudes which restrict
and distort our vital instincts for survival, pleasure, and creation. Through
stories and poems, Meade excavates the 'ground of libido' to release the
vital energies of 'embodied thought' and 'lunar awareness.' In the human
crucible made of body and soul dwells the divine spark of creation."
(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 September 21
Copyright 2006 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Go against the flow. Buck the system. Push
the river. Entertain the possibility that everything you know is at least
half-wrong. Do you catch my drift, Aries? What I'm trying to tell you is,
champion the underdog. Ignore the obvious. Disprove the conventional
wisdom. Bet on the dark horse. Be a devil's advocate. Shall I continue my
rant until you have absolutely no doubt what your mission is? Buy a new
goldfish and name it "Jaws." Figure out a way to lick your own elbow. Eat
with your non-dominant hand. Say prayers while you're having sex.
Acquire a pet mosquito. Watch TV while standing on your head.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Very few raindrops are actually raindrop-
shaped. A far greater number take the form of doughnuts. These
doughnutty raindrops are your power objects, Taurus--your magical
symbols. I hope they inspire you to look for the wide-open spaces in the
middle of every stormy downpour. I trust they will alert you to the
possibility that there'll be windows of opportunities at the heart of the
drizzle.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The more time you spend playing games in the
coming days, the smarter you'll be. Miniature golf, Monopoly, Twister, gin
rummy, paintball, scavenger hunts, tag, Dungeons and Dragons--doesn't
matter what it is, as long as it moves you to engage in exuberant fun for
no other reason than because it feels so good. Playing games will be the
Truth and the Way, the secret to enlightenment, the key to cultivating
robust health and making good decisions. Make this Chinese proverb your
motto: *A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it
has a song.*
CANCER (June 21-July 22): For years, I lived 13 miles from the top of Mt.
Tamalpais, the highest peak in the San Francisco Bay Area. Every day I
gazed at it from afar through my window or while riding my bike in the
hills, marveling as it glided through its ever-shifting relationship with the
sky. It was a remote yet familiar beacon, an awe-inspiring touchstone
against which I could measure my own undulating rhythms. Now I've
moved to a new home at the foot of Mt. Tam. I feel as if I've become part
of it--am embedded in its protective and majestic aura. It's no longer an
objective gauge, but rather an intimate tone and texture in my subjective
experience of myself. I predict that you will soon undergo a comparable
shift, Cancerian: from being *there* to being *here;* from outside to
inside; from strength absorbed at a distance to power felt up close.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Biologists say the speed of thought in the human
brain is normally 150 miles per hour. But I'm guessing that in the coming
weeks, ideas and intuitions will be zipping around your grey matter at a
higher rate. It's even possible they'll break the sound barrier on a regular
basis (761 miles per hour), meaning you may hear sonic booms coming
from inside your skull. Don't be alarmed if this occurs; in fact, be excited.
It's a sign that your intelligence is heating up, burning off tired old beliefs
and outmoded theories in the process.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Acting on the authority vested in me by the
Prophets for Profit Syndicate, and speaking on behalf of the planetary
rhythms, I can assure you of this: If your cash flow has been too slow and
you remain passive about it in the coming weeks, it will corrode your
mental health. If you lift a finger to upgrade your relationship with money,
on the other hand, cosmic forces will rush to your aid with unexpected
support. Therefore, in the name of all that's holy, I hereby declare the
beginning of a new age in which you conspire and agitate and work hard
for a new wage.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Think how it is to have a conversation with an
embryo," writes the poet Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks. "You
might say, 'The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheat fields
and mountain passes and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of
galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.' You
ask the embryo why he or she stays cooped up in the dark with eyes
closed. Listen to the answer. 'There is no *other world.* I only know what
I've experienced. You must be hallucinating.'" Now I say to you, Libra,
that you are the embryo Rumi and Barks are addressing. Consider the
possibility that they're telling the truth. Come out and take a look around.
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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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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Women are traps that lay for men
everywhere," said Franz Kafka, "in order to drag them into the infinite." If
you find this idea sexist or heterosexist, formulate your own version. One
way or another, you need to get lured or yanked into a bracing experience
of boundless possibilities . . . into a delightfully shocking immersion in
eternal truth . . . into a whirlwind tour of sublime, brain-scrambling
beauty. If an uncanny woman will do the job for you, great. If an amazing
man works better, or maybe a magical member of an in-between gender,
seek that person out. Play hard with the limitless, Scorpio.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): According to the esoteric spiritual
tradition of Western hermeticism, you have a personal Holy Guardian
Angel who's always ready to give you help, as well as to lovingly kick your
ass. Modern scientists snort derisively at this notion. They're
fundamentalist materialists, denying the possibility that something can
exist if it's not perceptible by our five senses or by instruments that
humans have invented. If your temperament and training align you with
the scientists' ideology, I'll ask you to temporarily suspend your
skepticism so that you might join other Sagittarians in trying the following
experiment: Act as if you have a personal Holy Guardian Angel whose job
it is to help you lose your illusions, liberate you from suffering, and make
you smarter. What clarifying questions will you ask the HGA? What
precise assistance will you request?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In May 1941, Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf
Hess made an unauthorized attempt to seek peace with Britain. He flew
there alone from Germany, parachuting onto a Scottish farm as his plane
crashed. According to some accounts, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
was quickly informed of Hess's odd visitation, but deferred taking action
because he was too absorbed in a Marx Brothers movie. I expect there'll
soon be a metaphorically comparable event in your sphere, Capricorn. My
advice? Be like Churchill. If loose cannons or obsessed messengers or self-
important proselytizers demand your attention, put them on hold and
stay engrossed in whatever's amusing you.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In 2000, I logged 34,000 miles during my
travels across America to meet my readers. During a three-year stretch
earlier in my life, I was a homeless gypsy, sponging off friends and staying
in hostels from Vermont to South Carolina, from Italy to Greece. But in
recent years I've gone on extensive pilgrimages of another kind, carried
out through imaginal exercises, lucid dreams, and shamanic meditations.
According to my reading of the omens, Aquarius, you can generate rich
blessings for yourself by getting away from it all in either of these two
directions. What's better, to head out into far-flung places in the outer
world or the inner world? It doesn't matter.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): One historian has figured out that during the
last three and a half millennia, humans have been at peace throughout the
world for only 230 years--less than seven percent of the time. How would
you rate your own personal proportions of war and peace, Pisces? I
certainly hope you're serene, centered, and secure far more than seven
percent of your life. But whether or not you are, the coming weeks will be
an excellent time to boost your average dramatically. The actions you
take and the attitudes you adjust could set in motion changes that will
make peace a more common everyday experience. How hard you willing to
work to establish a Pax Pisces?
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HOMEWORK:
Who's the person you'd most like to meet and have a drink with? Why?
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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