Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter
May 23, 2007
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
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"Life should be ecstasy. We need lifestyles of ecstasy and social forms
appropriate to whatever ecstasy is available for whoever wants it . . . We
need a million children saints adept at high unhexings, technological
vaudeville, rhythmic behaviors, hypnotic acrobatics, street trapeze artists,
naked circus vibrations—magic politics to exorcise the police state."
-Allen Ginsberg, quoted in "A Revolution Without Enemies," by Anu
Bonobo, http://tinyurl.com/ypv72x
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My book
"PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA:
How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings"
is available for sale at http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
To read news and features from the book, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/2uhvjl
Here's an excerpt from the book:
Now here's an excerpt from the book:
A DANGEROUS TABOO
The Beauty and Truth Lab's ongoing exploration of pronoia is a
conversation, not a dictation. It's an inquiry, not dogma. We're explorers
in search of the ever-evolving truth, not authorities proclaiming doctrine
from on high. We refuse to be salespeople intent on getting you to be like
us or buy our ideas. In fact, let's look at the downsides of the
perspectives we celebrate.
The first thing you should consider before leaping into a relationship with
pronoia is that it is utterly at odds with conventional wisdom. The
19th-century poet John Keats said that if something is not beautiful, it is
probably not true. But the vast majority of modern storytellers—
journalists, filmmakers, novelists, talk-show hosts, and poets—assert the
opposite: If something is not ugly, it is probably not true.
In a world that equates pessimism with acumen and regards stories about
things falling apart as having the highest entertainment value, pronoia is
deviant. It is a taboo so taboo that it's not even recognized as a taboo.
The average American child sees 20,000 murders on TV before reaching
age 18. This is considered normal. Every community has video rental
stores filled with hundreds of multimillion-dollar films that depict people
doing terrible things to each other. If you read newspapers, you have
every right to believe that Bad Nasty Things compose 90 percent of the
human experience. The authors of thousands of books published this year
will hope to lure you in through the glamour of murder, addiction, self-
hatred, sexual pathology, shame, betrayal, extortion, robbery, cancer,
arson, and torture.
But you will be hard-pressed to find more than a few novels, films, news
stories, and TV shows that dare to depict life as a gift whose purpose is
to enrich the human soul.
If you cultivate an affinity for pronoia, people you respect may wonder if
you have lost your way. You might appear to them as naive, eccentric,
unrealistic, misguided, or even stupid. Your reputation could suffer and
your social status could decline.
But that may be relatively easy to deal with compared to your struggle to
create a new relationship with yourself. For starters, you will have to
acknowledge that what you previously considered a strong-willed
faculty—the ability to discern the weakness in everything—might
actually be a mark of cowardice and laziness. Far from being evidence of
your power and uniqueness, your drive to produce hard-edged opinions
stoked by hostility is likely a sign that you've been brainwashed by the
pedestrian influences of pop nihilism.
Before the onset of pronoia, you may feel fine about the fact that you
generate much of your dynamic energy through anger, agitation,
discomfort, and judgmental scorn. But once the pronoia kicks in, you'll
naturally want more positive feelings to be your high-octane fuel. That will
require extensive retraining. The work could be arduous, delicate, and
time-consuming.
Are you truly ready to shed the values and self-images that keep you
locked into alignment with the dying civilization? Will you have the
stamina and inspiration necessary to dream up bigger, better, more
original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems? Do you realize
how demanding it will be to turn yourself into a wildly disciplined, radically
curious, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, ingeniously loving, aggressively
sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lustfully compassionate master of
rowdy bliss . . . .
. . . To read the rest of "A DANGEROUS TABOO,"
go here: http://tinyurl.com/2otvln
++++++++++++++++++++++++
To read other news and features from my book, go here:
http://snipurl.com/l9o3
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
POWELLS
http://tinyurl.com/3dsx6q
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
NEWS OF THE BLOOM-AND ZOOM, NOT THE DOOM-AND-GLOOM
http://www.realitysandwich.com
If you've been receiving my newsletter for a while, you know I think very
highly of the writing of Daniel Pinchbeck, whose latest book is *2012: The
Return of Quetzalcoatl.*
Now Daniel has launched a new website, REALITY SANDWICH, that's
already packed with entertaining info that'll make your head spin in the
most enjoyable ways. In the pronoiac spirit, it tends to counteract the
doom-and-gloom propaganda of the media's daily brainwash machine.
Reality Sandwich covers topics from sustainability to shamanism,
alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining
community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new
technologies.
SECRET FREEDOM
"A Revolution Without Enemies," by Anu Bonobo,
http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/109
CHANGE THE STORY-TELLING, CHANGE THE WORLD
The New News
"Mission Possible" by Daniel Pinchbeck
http://www.realitysandwich.com/mission_possible
ASTROLOGICAL BRILLIANCE
Check out Daniel Pinchbeck's review of one of the Best Astrology Books
Ever, Richard Tarnas' *Cosmos and Psyche.*
http://tinyurl.com/287tkw
BACTERIA TO SAVE THE WORLD?
Soon we may have the technology to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol
using only bacteria and sunlight.
http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/147
(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 May 24
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Chameleons use their stupendously strong
tongues to reach out and capture their prey, which can be up to one-sixth
their size. The equivalent for you would be if you could snag a big chicken
with the muscular organ in your mouth. I'm not predicting you'll develop
that skill in the coming days. But I do believe you'll have a powerful
tongue in the sense that the words you shape with it will have a
prodigious capacity to change your surroundings and influence everyone
around you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Inspiration is highly overrated," says photo
realist artist Chuck Close. "If you sit around and wait for the clouds to
part, it's not liable to ever happen." I share his assessment of the creative
process. The books and music and columns I've produced owe their
existence largely to my hard work, which generates a burst of inspiration
every now and then but mostly gets things done without much flash.
Keep that in mind, Taurus. Though you may not be inundated with a
series of epiphanies in the coming days, you have the potential to spawn
a lot of useful and original stuff. Your fertility quotient is high.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): To best take advantage of the fresh and
innocent cosmic forces that are offering themselves up to you, try
experiments like the following: eat food you've never tried; listen to new
music; climb a hill that has always been in the distance; have a down-to-
earth conversation with a person who up till now hasn't been quite real to
you; try erotic experiences you've wondered about; scrawl graffiti on a
wall that has never been written upon; and push yourself to feel positive
emotions that you may sometimes be too lazy or cynical to seek out, like
playful reverence, intense curiosity, voracious gratitude, and surprised
delight.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Near the end of World War II, a soldier named
Shoichi Yokoi was serving in the Japanese army on the island of Guam. As
American troops invaded, he fled into the dense jungle and hid in an
underground cave. There he stayed for the next 28 years. When he finally
returned to civilization, his first words were, "It is with much
embarrassment that I have returned alive." In comparing you to Yokoi,
Cancerian, I am of course exaggerating. You have not been concealing
yourself so literally or so thoroughly. And yet I feel a similar poignancy
about the way you have kept yourself from revealing your full beauty.
Please come in from out of the dark and shine the full blast of your
iridescent light.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
AUDIO LOVE LETTERS
In addition to the horoscopes that you're reading here, I create more in-
depth audio horoscopes for your inspiration. 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.
"Listening to your calming yet exciting audio horoscopes is sort of like
French-kissing Jesus." -Ariana B., Baltmore, MD
"I love the way you help me wake up from the daily trance." -Amy G.,
Sacramento
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "I will tell you a great secret," wrote French
philosopher Albert Camus. "Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes
place every day." Author and activist John W. Gardner spoke of the same
issue from a different angle. "To sensible people," he said, "every day is a
day of reckoning." I offer up those words for your guidance in the coming
days, Leo. May they inspire you to be fierce and willful, exuberantly
unstoppable and wildly resourceful. May they remind you that even
though there might be a world of pressure on you, that pressure is
natural, merciful, and exactly what you need.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The coming weeks will be an excellent time for
you to become dramatically clearer about the nature of your ambitions.
To jumpstart the process, read this insight from career counselor Robin
Hirschberg: "People tend to confuse their purpose ('What do I love to
do?'), with their ideals ('How am I comfortable behaving?'), and their
desired results ('What can I achieve?')." Now get to work figuring out the
truth about those three foundation stones, Virgo. Once you do that,
develop a plan for getting them to work together synergistically.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Who has done more good for the planet,
Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?" asked businessman John Mackey. "No
contest: Gates has helped far more people." Whether you agree with that
assessment or not, Libra, act as if it's true in the coming weeks. As you
express your generous urges, don't so much model yourself after Mother
Teresa, who felt pious feelings and gave mostly symbolic assistance to a
few thousand poor, sick people. Model yourself more after Gates, who
spends billions of dollars to provide technological resources to schools in
the U.S., and to bolster health care and reduce poverty in the Third World.
In other words, don't just be emotionally and spiritually supportive. Be
aggressively helpful in the most practical ways.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Militant atheists make the claim that religion
has always been a primary cause of war. If humans weren't under the
sway of "the God delusion," they fume, armed conflicts would be
infrequent. But military historian Eric Bergerud says that's absurd. He
notes that while there have been a few religious wars, "most wars in
history have been driven by the lust for power and loot." In other words,
the materialist delusion is far more lethal than the God delusion. People
who believe there's nothing of value beyond what the five senses can
perceive are often the most dangerous of all. Make this the seed for your
meditations, Scorpio. Think about how much less fear and loathing you'd
suffer if you knew for a fact that your soul lives forever. Imagine the
peace and wonder you'd feel if you knew there are realities and spiritual
beings that aren't visible to the naked eye or to the technology that
science has thus far dreamed up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This weekly newsletter, which includes my written horoscopes and
excerpts from my books, is always free.
Here are the paid services I provide:
My EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES are weekly spoken-word reports on
your destiny. They're three to four minutes long, and are available at
http://RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or
1-900-950-7700.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Read this passage from the Talmud:
"When the fetus comes forth into the air of the world, what is closed
opens and what is open closes." I believe that's an apt metaphor for
what's going on in your life, Sagittarius. You're leaving behind a situation
that has nurtured you even as it has bound you. Ahead of you lies a scary
freedom that will flood into you with a pleasurable shock. Welcome to the
brilliant shouting mystery of it all!
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "To have more, desire less." I urge you to
make that your motto in the coming days, Capricorn. You're in a phase
that's ideal for expanding your horizons by cutting back on your
attachments. Your wealth will grow if you renounce any greed you may be
harboring. Your power will intensify if you give up your longing for control
over things you can't control. So be brave. Be nervy. Have fun. As you
shed insubstantial wishes and barely-relevant obsessions, you may come
to resemble a monarch.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A flower is in one sense a brilliant
advertisement. With its alluring aroma, appealing color, and voluptuous
shape, it captures the attention of insects and birds, inviting them in for a
visit. It's not false advertising: The pollinators get to imbibe sweet food at
the heart of the flower. But the flower also has a hidden agenda. Its male
reproductive material, the pollen, gets stuck to the pollinators' bodies,
and they carry it away to the female organs of new flowers, thereby
facilitating the plant version of impregnation. Now imagine that you are a
flower, and re-read everything I just said, interpreting it as a metaphor for
the approach you might want to pursue in the coming days.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Dear Rob: I would love to live on the ocean, I
mean literally in a floating village, so that I could always sense the pulse of
the Mother of Us All. I want the wild revelation of the horizon to be
uncluttered before me. I want to smell the tang of salt in the air, to hear
the cries of seagulls. No more towers, no more labyrinths of concrete--
just breathtaking, incomprehensible expanses of waves. - Piscean
Immersion-Junkie." Dear Immersion-Junkie: Good news! You Pisceans will
soon be invited to get tastes of this restless primordial spectacle. It'll
come to you in many ways, including (but not limited to) your dreams,
meditations, hot baths, saunas, massages, love-making, music-playing,
journal-writing, and sailing.
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HOMEWORK: Comment on Karen Pino's quote: "The use of intellectual
rigor for the purpose of increasing fear, sorrow, or doubt is the greatest
cowardice of all." Go to http://RealAstrology.com and click 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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P.S. I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2007 Rob Brezsny
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