Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 10, 2007
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http://FreeWillAstrology.com
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"At all times I will be the pupil of everyone."
- Shantideva
"Jesus Christ is the only God. And so am I. And so are you."
- William Blake
"To live is so startling. It leaves but little room for other occupations."
- Emily Dickinson
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This newsletter will be available via RSS by late Tuesday night,
October 10. To sign up, go here:
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http://tinyurl.com/yvndm7
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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/lhwx2
Here's a story about how I wrote the book:
THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF A SEX-CHANGE
by Rob Brezsny
When I was 19, while other man-boys my age were dreaming of becoming
doctors and lawyers and rock stars, a curious ambition overtook me: I
decided I wanted to be a feminist when I grew up. As I pursued that goal
over the years, I devoted many meditations to imagining what it's like to
be a woman. While writing my second book, *The Televisionary Oracle,* I
lived part-time inside the psyche of the heroine for five years.
But I have always been perfectly happy to be a heterosexual man. The
prospect of dressing in women's clothes, for costume parties or any other
reason, has never appealed to me. I'm mildly interested in the stories of
those who have decided to change their sex with the intervention of
surgery and drugs, but the fantasy of becoming a transgender person has
never flitted across my mind's eye for even a nanosecond.
My identity as an author, on the other hand, has not been as clear-cut. I
have sometimes felt like a storyteller trapped in the body of a journalist.
On other occasions, it's more the reverse. I imagine I'm an essayist stuck
inside the persona of a poet, or else maybe a scholar lurking within the
form of a wacky visionary.
The confusion doesn't stop there. My heart tells me I'm a mystical seeker
who was born to explore spiritual themes, even as my head says I'm an
artistic intellectual whose task it is to illuminate the mysteries of concrete
reality here on the material plane.
So while I've never dreamed of being a transgender person, I have
sometimes fantasized about getting a mythical *trans-genre* operation --
a procedure that would cure me of the nagging sense that I'm not the
writer I'm supposed to be.
My wish was finally fulfilled during the four and a half years I worked on
my new book, *PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia.* It taught me not
to struggle against my contradictions, but rather to celebrate them. It
didn't give me the literary equivalent of a sex-change, but rather
bestowed on me a poetic license to be the authorial equivalent of a
hermaphrodite.
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*PRONOIA* is my third book, but my main claim to fame is the 1400-word
weekly report that I syndicate to newspapers and publish on the Web.
Here's the complication: This lynchpin of my career takes the form of a
horoscope column, which is not exactly renowned as a source of deep
thought and literary excellence. I accepted the challenge of making the
most of the opportunity when it fell into my lap many years ago, glad to
have a gig (any gig!) that paid me for writing.
In addition to the fact that newspaper horoscope columns traditionally
don't get no respect from anyone with more than a tenth grade
education, there is a further problem: Most of them reflect badly on the
ancient and honorable art of astrology. Serious students of planetary
symbolism, among whose number I include myself, regard the shallow,
superstitious advice contained in most horoscope columns as a gross
debasement of the elegant system they aspire to master.
I do my best to transcend the limitations of the genre. Each of my
horoscopes is a kind of love letter imbued with my reverence for lively
language. Stories and metaphors are the raw materials I work with to
invigorate my readers' imaginations. My intention is to boost their power
to shape their own fates, which is why I call my column "Free Will
Astrology."
I might ask Tauruses to meditate on the meaning of John Berger's
observation that "Authenticity depends entirely on being faithful to the
essential ambiguity of experience," or compare Virgo's imminent destiny
to an unexpected dance contest I engaged in with an eccentric old woman
I met while trekking through Germany's Black Forest, or exhort Scorpios
to meditate on how their lives in the near future might resemble that of
the bird called the bar-tailed godwit, which migrates annually from Alaska
to New Zealand by hitching rides on gale-force winds.
Do you see how odd my task is? I'm a devoted astrologer who wrestles
my words into a format that most good astrologers disdain. I'm a
passionate writer who squeezes my thoughts into a genre that most
professional writers ridicule.
On the other hand, because horoscope columns have so little credibility,
no one cares if I twist and play with mine. That means I've been able to
pull off a feat I never dared to hope for when I was an undergraduate at
Duke University studying the work of William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud, Allen
Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, and company: that I might someday get paid a
decent wage to create disguised poetry in a widely syndicated newspaper
column.
There's another perk to the job. Having given myself permission to use
"Free Will Astrology" as a vehicle for all my creative urges, I don't have to
confine myself to being a poet. I've also been able to be by turns a
journalist, a political pundit, a New Age prophet, a science reporter, a
philosopher, and an intimate advisor.
There has been a downside to this tremendous freedom, however. It
allowed my youthful confusion to blossom into a full-blown identity crisis.
At the dawn of my career I was inclined to be indulgent toward my
uncertainty. Two decades later, though, I was having recurring dreams of
William Blake asking me, "So what kind of writer do you want to be when
you grow up?"
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As much gratitude as I feel for the privilege of creating 12 oracles every
week, there has always been a part of me that longs to produce more
comprehensive and permanent artifacts. My first two books, *Images Are
Dangerous* and *The Televisionary Oracle,* were attempts to address
that desire.
Like my astrology column, alas, both of them wanted to be a festive
hodgepodge of genres. The creative artist in me was inclined to honor
that urge, but the sensible career-builder in me protested. "Arrggghhh,"
he complained. "A book *cannot* be a riot of styles if it hopes to reach a
wide readership, earn royalties, and get critical respect. It has to be one
genre or another! Bookstore employees can't simultaneously shelve it in
the poetry, memoir, spirituality, fiction, feminism, and music sections. And
the marketing departments of all the publishers in the world agree that
trying to straddle a variety of niches is tantamount to an economic death
wish."
So declared the part of me that wanted to actually sell some books. But I
didn't listen. Instead, I followed my poverty-loving bliss. The results were
predictable. About 500 copies of *Images Are Dangerous* made it into
the marketplace, and it was reviewed in a grand total of four publications.
*The Televisionary Oracle* eventually sold more than 9,000, which didn't
come close to compensating me for the money I sank into publicity and
my book tour. It got 25 reviews, mostly from alt-alt-websites and
newspapers that carry my column. The brightest light it generated was a
blurb from my favorite novelist Tom Robbins, who said, "I've seen the
future of America literature and its name is Rob Brezsny."
Literature! The magic word. He didn't say, "I've seen the future of
horoscope columns (or poetic outlaw journalism or crazy visionary rants)
and its name is Rob Brezsny." But if anyone else agreed with his
assessment, they have yet to step forth and proclaim it. *The
Televisionary Oracle* was bought by cultural creatives who love festive
hodgepodges and don't care whether or not they're literature; it was
ignored by the custodians of high culture, who were as likely to review it
as a Christian fundamentalist would be to praise its lesbian tantric sex
scenes.
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I began work on *PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia* about five
minutes after I finished my 23-city tour in support of *The Televisionary
Oracle.* Or rather *PRONOIA* began working on me. I took dictation while
the book told me exactly what it wanted to be. Surprise! It revealed early
on that it planned on becoming the mother of all festive hodgepodges.
Sometimes I wasn't smart enough to catch on to its style and message,
and so it had to wait for me to ripen. Often that meant I was compelled to
go out and have experiences in my actual life that changed me in such a
way that I wised up to what the book already knew.
It was for the sake of becoming a better servant of *PRONOIA,* for
instance, that I had to fall in love with the wrong woman, lose $23,000 on
a bad investment, and wander alone out into the desert begging for a
vision. The lessons I was taught thereby made me far more intelligent, or
at least far less stupid, about pronoia.
Luckily, the book was patient with me. It never kicked my ass so hard that
I fell over, hit my head, and lost consciousness. Gradually, it proved to me
that if I hoped to do it justice, I would have to not only explore and
articulate the principles of pronoia, but also embody them. It wouldn't be
enough to announce, "Life always gives you exactly what you need,
exactly when you need it." I would have to become living proof that that
was the case. And I couldn't get away with merely writing the two
paragraphs below, I had to actually become the truth they speak:
"Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy designed to keep us well supplied
with blessings. What kind of blessings? Palatial homes, attractive lovers,
lottery winnings, career success? Maybe. But just as likely: interesting
surprises, unexpected challenges, gifts we hardly know what to do with,
conundrums that force us to get smarter.
"Novelist William Vollman referred to the latter types of blessings when
he said that 'the most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing
something that's a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don't
know how to solve.' Sculptor Henry Moore had a slightly different angle:
'The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life
to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your
whole life. And the most important thing is—it must be something you
cannot possibly do.'"
The universe is inherently friendly and life is on our side, I learned while
creating *PRONOIA.* But it's difficult to perceive that when we're
primarily serving the agendas of our grasping, small-minded selves. And
so it's crucial to note that pronoia works in behalf of the soul, not the
ego. In fact, if it ever took root as a widely held philosophy, it would
probably overthrow your ego and my ego and everyone's ego; it would
overthrow the status quo, the government, and even reality itself.
By the time I was halfway done with the book, I had come to see that if I
hoped to give birth to it in its full glory, I would have to banish my ego, as
much as possible, as a source of motivation for my writing.
In other words, I couldn't worry about whether the book would
supercharge my career or earn me money or win me critical acclaim. My
duty was simply to communicate the meme of pronoia in all of its
paradoxical splendor. If that meant it had to be both a rowdy New Age
almanac and an intellectually rigorous treatise, so be it. If that required
me to weave a mélange of stories, poems, manifestos, essays, oracles,
and reader exercises, so be it.
By the time *PRONOIA* was ready to emerge, my trans-genre operation
was complete. I no longer questioned and resisted and fought with the
strange blessings that life had been trying to shower me with all those
years, but welcomed them with a full heart.
So am I a storyteller trapped in the body of a journalist, or an essayist
stuck inside the persona of a poet, or a scholar lurking within the form of
a wacky visionary? Am I a mystical seeker who was born to explore
spiritual themes or an artistic intellectual whose task it is to illuminate the
mysteries of concrete reality here on the material plane? The answer is all
of the above. And I thank the universe for granting me this unsolvable
mystery.
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To read news and features from my book, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/lhwx2
You can buy the book here:
AMAZON
http://tinyurl.com/qaj62
POWELLS
http://tinyurl.com/3dsx6q
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OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
MAKING YOURSELF HAPPY
A short video: The Science of Synthesizing Happiness
http://tinyurl.com/2v4mbx
GENEROSITY GONE WILD
GlobalGiving.org
"GlobalGiving.org is a marketplace for goodness where you can browse
ways to help others around the world, pick the ones you are most
passionate about, and give to the solution. We connect people like you
with great projects you might not otherwise find. Much like eBay's
approach to online commerce, GlobalGiving is changing the way people
give. We work with a network of well-run organizations and carefully
research their projects -- gathering detailed information on the project
leaders, as well as the projects' objectives and expected outcomes. Then,
we make it simple for you to give to these projects and track the impact
of your generosity."
THE ART OF ASKING SMART QUESTIONS
http://tinyurl.com/38f2jn
Why not ask yourself smart questions that will make you happier?
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. These are 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 October 11
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "The future is already here," says science
fiction writer William Gibson. "It's just not very evenly distributed." Your
job in the coming weeks, Libra, is to locate hotbeds where the future is
concentrated, and put yourself in the midst of them. It's time, in other
words, for you to escape from the wan, sludgy places where the past is
masquerading as the present. You're ready to thrive on the delightful
shocks of the new.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Eskimos of Siberia are perplexed by the
changes in their climate, wrote Usha Lee McFarling in the *Seattle Times.*
Thunder and lightning used to be exceptional events, but now they make
regular appearances. Bizarre, balmy winds breeze in out of the south.
Elders who were once skilled in the art of reading the sky to foretell the
weather are at a loss. "The Earth is turning faster," said one hunter. I
suspect, Scorpio, that you're having a comparable crisis of faith on the
personal level. For you, the Earth may not only seem to be rotating at a
speedier clip, but also at a different angle. One of these mornings, you
may even see the sun rise in the west. But your situation isn't necessarily
as disturbing as the Eskimos believe theirs to be. For all you know, the
signs are portents of rebirth.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum
videtur" is Latin for "Anything said in Latin sounds profound." Since your
imminent future will require you to be elegant, high-minded, august, and
in possession of gravitas -- even if people you deal with aren't any of
those things -- I'll provide you with Latin phrases to fit the kinds of
situations you may find yourself in. (1) Quod natura non sunt turpia.
(What is natural cannot be bad.) (2) Quinon proficit deficit. (He who does
not advance, goes backwards.) (3) Quod cibus est aliis, aliis est venenum.
(What's food to some is poison to others.) (4) Magna cum voluptate.
(With great pleasure.) (5) Sane ego te vocavi. Forsitan capedictum tuum
desit. (I did call. Maybe your answering machine is broken.) (6) Revelare
pecunia! (Show me the money!) (7) Quomodo cogis comas tuas sic
videri? (How do you get your hair to do that?)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The coming week won't be a favorable
time to seek revenge against the thunder for making such loud noises.
Nor would it be a good idea for you to curse the sea for being so restless
or to angrily punch the sky for being so high or to spread nasty gossip
about the wind for refusing to heed your commands. On the other hand,
cosmic fortune will bless you if you yourself are like an elemental force
that unapologetically obeys the laws of your own nature.
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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.
Try them at http://RealAstrology.com.
They're available by phone at 1-877-873-4888
or 1-900-950-7700.
"Your expanded astrology thingees help me remember who I really am." -
Gareth N., Toronto
"I never knew it was possible to get my butt kicked and my head patted
at the same time -- until I listened to you, Rob." -Kristi P., Portland, OR
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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): One morning a few weeks ago, I was sipping
tea in a cafe on San Francisco's Valencia Street. Diving in to the *New
York Times,* I found a front-page, above-the-fold story about how San
Francisco has become the first American city to offer free or subsidized
health care to all adults who don't have medical insurance. My response
was a mix of happiness and surprise. I was pleased to learn that my
homebase had struck such a radical blow for practical compassion. And I
was bewildered that I had seen nothing about it in any of the local Bay
Area media. You may experience a similar scenario soon, Aquarius. To
become aware of a major development that has been occurring close to
you, you might have to get help from a distant source.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Dear Rob: I base who I am on how much I
have suffered. My identity is wrapped up in all that I don't have but want,
the things that have hurt me, and every wrong that has been done to me.
The weird thing is, though, that I've actually made a flourishing, creative
life for myself. My experiences are far richer and my luck is much greater
than my 'poor suffering soul' would like to admit. Any advice? -Successful
Yet Gloomy Pisces." Dear Successful: I'm happy to announce that the
coming weeks will be an opportune time for you Pisceans to accomplish a
big shift in your relationship to your difficult memories. Life will be
conspiring to free you from the compulsion to anchor your sense of self in
your pain.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I'm not necessarily recommending that you
read Stanely Seigel's book *The Patient Who Cured His Therapist.* But I
do think you should regard the title as a suggestive metaphor for your
immediate future. It's possible that you'll be helped by a person you've
been helping, or be given gifts by person to whom you've given gifts.
Could it be that you'll be healed by someone you imagine you're superior
to, or taught a beautiful lesson by someone you don't understand?
Meditate on the ways you might be the beneficiary of a role reversal.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "For those who are walled up, everything is a
wall . . . even an open door." in conveying this thought from the French
poet René Char, I don't mean to imply that you're any more walled up
than the rest of us, Taurus. My reason for mentioning it at this particular
moment is to prod you into taking aggressive action to un-wall yourself in
whatever ways you can. According to my reading of the omens, the
cosmos will reward your efforts to topple facades that are obstructing
your view and preventing you from being touched.
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AUDIO HOROSCOPES
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.
"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): "If one theorized about the nature of the
Creator from a study of creation," said British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane,
"it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and
beetles." He drew that inference from the facts that one-fourth of all
animal species are beetles and that in the Milky Way Galaxy alone there
are a trillion stars for every person on earth. What about you, Gemini?
What could we conclude about the nature of your mission here on the
planet if we took an inventory of what you create? What are the
experiences, products, artifacts, words, feelings, and impressions that you
regularly spawn, and what do they say about you? It's an excellent time
to meditate on this subject.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I think it will be important for you to be brave
in the coming days. Probably not in the sense of rushing into a burning
building to save a child, but rather in the sense of expressing yourself
with forceful grace in situations where you have previously been asleep or
hidden or ignorant. In order to summon that much courage, you'll be wise
to heed the advice of Buddhist author Pema Chodron: "The essence of
bravery is being without self-deception." Be rigorous as you uncover any
lies you've been telling yourself.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): "As soon as you concern yourself with the 'good'
and 'bad' of your fellows," said Morihei Ueshiba, founder of the martial art
of aikido, "you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter.
Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you."
Make that your hypothesis in the coming week, Leo. Proceed according to
the theory that you can feed your strength and power and freedom by
accepting other people just the way they are. Assume that one of the
surest ways to be happy and successful is to judge no one.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The faintest star in the night sky is Van
Biesbroeck's star. It's only about as big as the Earth and is just .002
percent as luminous as our sun. Every other heavenly light outshines it.
From one perspective, then, it's a puny little thing. And yet it *is* visible
despite the fact that it's almost 19 light years away from us. From that
point of view, it's an amazingly intense, potent, brilliant body. Is there
anything about you that resembles Van Biesbroeck's star, Virgo? I think
there is. Celebrate and show off that part of you in the coming week.
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HOMEWORK: Comment on Nietzsche's belief that "One must have chaos
within oneself if one is to be a dancing star." Testify by going to
http://RealAstrology.com and clicking on "Email Rob."
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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my 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://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
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
the right to edit such submissions for length, style, and content.
Requests for anonymity will be honored with submissions;
otherwise, reader names, screen names, or initials will be used.
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
2007 Rob Brezsny
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