Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together
go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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December 20, 2006
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PREDICTING YOUR YEAR AHEAD
This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a preview of the
major themes you'll be working and playing with in 2007.
Beginning December 26, I'll be spending three weeks talking in-depth
about your long-range forecast in the EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES.
To find out more, go to http://RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or
1-900-950-7700.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS
Fundamentalist Christians send me hate mail. Religious zealots in ten
cities have banned one of my books. Along with meditation, yoga, and sex
for fun, the Vatican has declared astrology, one of my occupations, to be
dangerous to your spiritual health.
All of these haters would be shocked if they learned that Jesus Christ is
one of the Main High Dudes in my pantheon of gods. They seem to believe
that people like me -- goddess-worshiping tantric sufi Qabalist Buddhist
pagans who hang around with zen trickster witches and espouse a
socialist libertarian political philosophy -- couldn't possibly have an
intimate relationship with the cosmic hero they claim to own. They must
think they have commandeered the trademark of one of the sweetest
avatars in history!
But I do have an intimate relationship with Jesus. How could I not? He was
a champion of women's rights, a threat to the established political order,
and a radical spiritual activist who worked outside religious institutions.
The dude owned nothing and was a passionate advocate for the poor and
underprivileged. He was uncompromisingly opposed to violence and war.
Besides that, he was a master of love and he devoted his life to serving
the Divine Intelligence. I want to be like him when I grow up!
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle," he said,
"than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." That's a pretty
clear statement of his position towards rightwing accumulators of
property and wealth.
"Love your enemies," he said, "do good to those who hate you, bless
those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." How any
militarist promoting global arms sales and pre-emptive war could claim an
affinity with Jesus is incomprehensible.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!
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The piece below is excerpted from my book
"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings"
available at http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
or find out more at http://www.freewillastrology.com
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THE MORE ACCIDENTAL, THE MORE TRUE
"The more accidental, the more true," wrote Boris Pasternak in his poem
"February." Scholar Mikhail Epstein expanded this observation: "The more
accidental the phenomenon, the more divine its nature, for the divine is
what has not been envisioned, what cannot be deduced from general
rules, nor irreducible to them."
If we pursue this line of thought to its logical conclusion, we may decide
that the most useful sources of illumination are not always holy books,
revered dogma, and great truths that everyone has heard. They might
also be serendipitous anomalies that erupt into the daily routine and break
the trance of ordinary awareness. "The tiny spark," Epstein writes, "is the
precise measure of the holiness of the world." (Source: Mikhail Epstein,
"Judaic Spiritual Traditions in the Poetry of Pasternak and
Mandel'shtam.")
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When you're an aspiring master of pronoia, you see the cracks in the
facades as opportunities; inspiration erupts as you careen over bumps in
the road; you love the enticing magic that flows from situations that
other people regard as rough or crooked. "That which is not slightly
distorted lacks sensible appeal," wrote poet Charles Baudelaire, "from
which it follows that irregularity--that is to say, the unexpected, surprise
and astonishment--is an essential part and characteristic of beauty."
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Wabi-sabi is a Japanese term that refers to a captivating work of art with
a distinctive flaw that embodies the idiosyncratic humanity of its creator.
An aqua groove in an otherwise perfectly green ceramic pot may give it
wabi-sabi. A skilled blues singer who intentionally wails out of pitch for a
moment may be expressing wabi-sabi.
Wabi-sabi is rooted in the idea that perfection is a kind of death.
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"The essence of Wabi-sabi is that true beauty, whether it comes from an
object, architecture, or visual art, doesn't reveal itself until the winds of
time have had their say. Beauty is in the cracks, the worn spots, and the
imperfect lines." --Todd Dominey, HTTP://www.whatdoiknow.org
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Wabi-sabi is a kind of beauty that's imperfect, impermanent, and
incomplete, says Leonard Koren in his book "Wabi-Sabi for Artists,
Designers, Poets and Philosophers." It differs from Western notions that
beauty resides in the "monumental, spectacular, and enduring." It's about
"the minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so
subtle and evanescent they are almost invisible at first glance."
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"When bread is baked, some parts are split at the surface, and these
parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion contrary to the purpose
of the baker's art, are beautiful, and in a peculiar way excite a desire for
eating. Again, figs, when they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe
olives the very circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a
peculiar beauty to the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the
lion's eyebrows, and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars,
though they are far from being beautiful, please the mind." --Marcus
Aurelius, "Meditations," translated by George Long
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"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big
success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from
individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so
many rootlets, or like the capillaries." --William James, "The Will to
Believe"
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"The great lessons from the true mystics, from the Zen monks, is that the
sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's
neighbors, friends, and family, in one's back yard, and that travel may be
a flight from confronting the sacred. To be looking everywhere for
miracles is a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous." --
Abraham H. Maslow, "Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences"
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"If you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in
the ocean of delusion." --Lin-Chi, "The Taoist Classics," translated by
Thomas Cleary
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"The lesson that life constantly enforces is 'Look underfoot.' You are
always nearer to the true sources of your power than you think. The lure
of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is
where you are. Don't despise your own place and hour. Every place is the
center of the world." --Naturalist John Burroughs
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"We want to be God in all the ways that are not the ways of God, in what
we hope is indestructible or unmoving. But God is fragile, a bare smear of
pollen, that scatter of yellow dust from the tree that tumbled over in a
storm of grief and planted itself again." --Deena Metzger, "Prayers for a
Thousand Years," edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon
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"Nature exults in abounding radicality, extremism, anarchy. If we were to
judge nature by its common sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the
world existed. In nature, improbabilities are the one stock in trade. The
whole creation is one lunatic fringe . . . No claims of any and all
revelations could be so far-fetched as a single giraffe." --Annie Dillard,
"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"
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To read other news and features from my book, go here:
http://snipurl.com/l9o3
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
http://snipurl.com/krjj
BARNES & NOBLE
http://snipurl.com/krjn
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
SEX & POLITICS
Global Orgasm for World Peace
December 22
http://www.globalorgasm.org/
MOVIE
*Scared Sacred*
http://www.scaredsacred.org
http://tinyurl.com/y8ckyq
"Visiting the 'Ground Zeros' of the planet, filmmaker Velcrow Ripper asks
if it's possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history. He
travels to the minefields of Cambodia; war-torn Afghanistan; the toxic
wasteland of Bhopal; post-9/11 New York; Bosnia; Hiroshima, Israel and
Palestine. In each place, he unearths unforgettable stories of survival,
ritual, and recovery."
NEWS
Brazil protects great swath of Amazon
http://tinyurl.com/yz2ll5
"A swath of Amazon rain forest the size of Alabama was placed under
government protection. Known as the Guayana Shield, the 57,915-
square-mile area contains more than 25 percent of the world's remaining
humid tropical forests and the largest remaining unpolluted fresh water
reserves in the American tropics."
(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 21
Copyright 2006 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Happy Holy Daze, Aries! I've been meditating
on the perfect holiday gifts for you. What might inspire you to take
maximum advantage of the cosmic currents in 2007? Here's my answer: a
plane ticket to an exotic playground where your mind will get blown and
your emotions aired out and your instincts educated. Another gift I'd love
you to have would be a pilgrimage to a spot where you lived once upon a
time. There you could take advantage of Nelson Mandela's counsel:
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find
the ways in which you yourself have altered."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Happy Holy Daze, Taurus! I've been
meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What item might inspire
you to take maximum advantage of the cosmic currents in 2007? I've
decided on *Winning With Integrity: Getting What You're Worth Without
Selling Your Soul,* a book by sports agent Leigh Steinberg. It'll help you
be both smart and heartful as you navigate your way through the
negotiations you'll be called on to do in the coming months. Here's a
taste of Steinberg's advice. (1) Align yourself with people who share your
values. (2) Learn all you can about the other party. (3) Create a climate
of cooperation, not conflict. (4) Learn to listen. (5) Convince the other
party you have an option, even if you don't.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Happy Holy Daze, Gemini! I've been thinking
about the perfect holiday gift for you to give yourself. Considering the
cosmic currents in 2007, what offering would be most appropriate? The
answer is a magic mirror. Why? Because I think you should look at your
reflection more often in the coming year. Gaze more deeply into your own
eyes and try harder to find out who's really there inside you. Talk to
yourself pointedly while you're in front of your magic mirror; ask yourself
probing questions. And every now and then, press up close to your
reflection for a kiss.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Happy Holy Daze, Cancerian! I've been
meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic offering
might put you in the right mood to deal proactively with potential
problems in 2007? I've decided on a set of those specially-designed
clothes-storage bags that allow you to suck all the air out, compressing
your sweaters and pants so that they take up significantly less space in
your luggage or closet. Hopefully these bags would inspire you to come
up with creative applications of the "less is more" principle, which will be a
recurring theme for you in the coming months.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your
upcoming adventures in 2007?
In this week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I give you a preview of
your major themes in the coming year. Find out more at
http://RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or
1-900-950-7700.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Happy Holy Daze, Leo! In 2007, I predict that
you'll experience a metaphorical version of something that's rare in
nature: a gentle birth. There'll be a big new addition to your life, in other
words, and its arrival won't hurt a bit--may even feel downright ecstatic.
Here's some more mysterious good news: In the coming months, you will
have the power to learn from the moon, converse with the dead, and
remember your ancient origins. And get this: The adventures that amuse
you most could involve foam rubber, distant bells, smoke rising from
manholes, plums from Damascus, and exotic trophies. One more thing,
Leo: In 2007, brand new bedtime stories will be mandatory.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Mytho-poetic scholars say that honey
symbolizes emotional maturity. When it appears in your dreams or
reveries, it may mean you're expanding your capacity to experience
feelings that are positive and healthy for you. It suggests you're ready to
shed distorted psychological patterns that you unwittingly absorbed as a
child, and replace them with new imprints that are in harmony with your
highest values. Since 2007 will bring opportunities for you to do these
exact things, Virgo, I suggest that you give honey an honored place in
your life. Maybe buy some of the best stuff on the market, put it in a fine
decanter, and keep it on an altar in your bedroom. Happy Holy Daze!
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Happy Holy Daze, Libra! I've been meditating
on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic offering might inspire
you to be in closest alignment with the cosmic currents in 2007? I've
decided on the book *Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World.* In it,
author Bernard Dixon praises bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa.
Without them, he says, we'd be nothing. They're instrumental in providing
our food, purifying our drinking water, and processing our sewage. If you
keep *Power Unseen* in a prominent place in your home during the
coming months, it might constantly remind you to be reverent toward
and grateful for the little things--which is exactly what the astrological
omens suggest you should do. Maybe the book will also inspire you to be
alert for invisible helpers and inconspicuous allies.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Happy Holy Daze, Scorpio! I've been
meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic offering
might inspire you to be in closest alignment with the cosmic currents in
2007? I've decided on Elvis Presley's favorite midnight snack: a peanut
butter and banana sandwich deep-fried in butter. Why? Because like the
King, you should aggressively pursue the unique experiences that will
reliably give you comfort and sustenance. Like the King, you should feel
no guilt about doing unusual things that you know in your heart will help
you perform at your best.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Happy Holy Daze, Sagittarius! My gift for
you is the following oracle: A breakthrough you were blessed with in 1995
will be coming back around in 2007. How? Three possible ways: (1) You'll
be inspired to make changes to whatever sprung from that original
breakthrough 12 years ago. (2) You'll be visited by a new version of that
breakthrough, on a higher octave this time. (3) You'll attempt a quantum
leap that resembles the original, but happens in a different area of your
life.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Happy Holy Daze, Capricorn! I've been
meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic offering
might inspire you to be in closest alignment with the cosmic currents in
2007? I've decided on Ed Anger's book *Let's Pave the Stupid Rainforests
& Give School Teachers Stun Guns.* Not because I agree with his
assertions, but simply because his outrageousness might push you to
dream up wild solutions to your same old boring dilemmas; his rowdy
spirit may fuel your own rebellious flights of imagination that will inspire
you to fight back against the numbing insanity of the loony bin known as
"reality."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You should and could be the zodiac's
premier networker in 2007. The connections you foster and the deals you
broker can save the world--or at least your local segment of the world. In
order to pull it all off with maximum effectiveness, you should also be the
zodiac's premier fun-maker. Throw parties, tell jokes, and constantly
invite people to play harder and take themselves less seriously. What can
you do to prepare for this destiny? Start by getting yourself holiday gifts
that will help you fulfill your assignments. How about installing a backyard
water park, for instance? (Neiman-Marcus offers such a thing in its
Christmas catalog.) Or about some comedy lessons from a person like the
humor coach in the film *Borat*? Happy Holy Daze, Aquarius!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Happy Holy Daze, Pisces! I've been meditating
on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic item might stimulate
you to take maximum advantage of the cosmic currents in 2007? I've
decided on a ladder. This power object will signify two important themes
for you: (1) Your potential to climb to a higher level of excellence and
clout, giving you a more expansive view of your surroundings. (2) The
need to make this ascent carefully and deliberately (not quickly and
sloppily), with the aid of simple tools (not with the metaphorical
equivalent of an elevator), and with trustworthy assistance (for example,
with someone to hold the ladder steady).
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HOMEWORK:
Make a prediction about what you will do in 2007. Tell me about it 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 personal charts these days, but I highly recommend my
favorite astrological colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely
matches my own. In our many discussions about astrology over the years,
we've had a major influence on each other's work.
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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anyone.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2006 Rob Brezsny
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