Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
December 19, 2007
+
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
+
A PREVIEW OF YOUR DESTINY IN 2008
This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a preview of
some major themes you'll be working and playing with in 2008.
Beginning next week, I'll devote three weeks to an in-depth discussion of
your long-range outlook for the coming 12 months.
To find out more about the Expanded Audio Horoscopes, go to
http://RealAstrology.com.
The cost is $6 per sign on the Web, or $1.99 per minute by phone.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A BRIEF FOR THE DEFENSE
by Jack Gilbert
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.
-Jack Gilbert
Gilbert has several books.
One is *Refusing Heaven,* available here:
http://tinyurl.com/o8kwn
Another is *The Great Fires,* available here: http://tinyurl.com/38az42
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
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.")
*
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."
*
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.
*
"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
*
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."
*
"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
*
"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*
*
"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*
*
"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
*
"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
*
"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
*
"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*
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OTHER PRONOIA RESOURCES:
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ROCKS
http://tinyurl.com/226fyb
What if *everything* is sentient?
BENEVOLENT PRANKS OR ANGELIC ART?
http://tinyurl.com/2hjw7o
The crop circle hall of fame! I don't care who makes them --
extraterrestrials, angels, or guys with GPS gadgets sneaking around in the
middle of the night -- they're gorgeous, and I give thanks for their
mysteriousness.
THE FRONTIER IS EVERYWHERE
http://tinyurl.com/2927gh
The Six Most Important Experiments in the World
(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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning December 20
Copyright 2007 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): French author and statesman André
Malraux observed that Jesus Christ was the only anarchist who ever really
succeeded. It's no coincidence that Christ was a Capricorn, I might add,
since the evolved members of your tribe have many of the qualities
necessary to thrive in situations where there are no formal rules or laws. If
you would like to move more in the direction of being the highly evolved
Capricorn you were born to be -- and I think 2008 will be a very favorable
time to do just that -- you should cultivate the qualities of a successful
anarchist. In other words, be self-motivated, disciplined, and respectful of
the needs of other people. Do the right thing without having to be
coerced to do the right thing. Foster in yourself a reverence for freedom
and a knack for making constructive use of your freedom.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Last July 11, lightning zapped the steeple
of the Newman United Methodist Church in Grants Pass, Oregon. Later
that same evening, another bolt from the heavens struck the exact same
spot. Was this bad luck? A punishing message from an angry God? No.
The rare double shot knocked the siding off the steeple, revealing a
problem that no one at the church had suspected: The inner structure
was rife with dry rot that would have collapsed soon. In exposing the
hidden danger, the lightning did everyone a big favor. I predict that you
will benefit from a metaphorically comparable sequence in early 2008,
Aquarius.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If you wanted to, you could be a skilled
rainmaker in 2008, and make big bucks catalyzing downpours in drought-
stricken areas. Your magical potentials are such that you might even be
able to divert the flows of rivers, purify the pollution out of suffering
lakes, and staunch the tears of people who've cried way too much. In
other words, Pisces, you will have great power over the element of water.
You could even use your wizardry to achieve a masterful equanimity
toward your own oceanic emotions.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Ambition is a bad excuse for not having
enough good sense to be lazy," my ex-girlfriend Arlene used to say. She
claimed to be a Zen master whose duty it was to deprogram me out of
my absurd striving to make something of myself. She believed the key to
enlightenment was to do nothing as much as possible. "You're
egotistically attached to your identity as a poet," she'd yell into my room
as I toiled over my writing. "Come out here and show me you have the
spiritual guts to sit in front of the TV and lose your grandiose self in a
meaningless game show." While I did eventually emerge from our
relationship with an appreciation for the value of emptiness, it was not
ultimately my destiny to downplay ambition. On the contrary! Which is
why I'm here to exhort you, Aries, to treat your desires as sacred rocket
fuel -- in 2008, more than ever. In the coming months, in accordance with
your astrological omens, I will intensify my efforts to supercharge your
ambition.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES
This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a preview of
some major themes you'll be working and playing with in 2008.
Beginning next week, I'll devote three weeks to an in-depth discussion of
your long-range outlook for the coming 12 months.
To find out more about the Expanded Audio Horoscopes, go to
http://RealAstrology.com.
They're $6 if you access them on the Web, or $1.99 per minute over the
phone: 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Education is a method whereby one acquires
a higher grade of prejudices," said author Laurence J. Peter. One of your
top assignments in 2008 will be to prove him wrong. I hope that you will
aggressively pursue a more authentic form of higher learning in numerous
ways, from exploring the frontiers of your world to reading more good
books to seeking out the company of original thinkers. I trust that as you
expose yourself to novel data and expansive perspectives, you will get
your mind blown over and over again.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): How do you numb your pain, Gemini? In 2008, I
suggest that you do that less than you ever have before. Instead, launch
a fierce, relentless campaign to heal the pain so that you no longer have
to numb it. The astrological omens say that if you establish that as your
intention, you will attract into your life the helpers and inspiration you
need to make it happen. More than that: You'll be likely to generate the
kind of good fortune that will render at least some of the pain obsolete.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You worked your ass off in 2007. Am I right,
my fellow Cancerian? In fact, you threw yourself into your hard labors
with so much dutiful fervor that you sometimes lost sight of the fact that
they were mostly just preparation for bigger and better assignments.
Luckily for you, I'm here to snap you out of your amnesia. Please begin
immediately to formulate a vision of how you will make the transition to
those bigger and better assignments.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Some weeds are good for flowers and vegetables,
protecting them from predatory insects. So say horticulturalists Stan
Finch and Rosemary Collier, writing in *Biologist* magazine. When the
bugs come looking for their special treats -- the plants we love -- they
often get waylaid by the weeds, landing on them first and getting fooled
into thinking there's nothing more valuable nearby. So for example, when
cabbages are planted in the midst of clover, flies lay eggs on only seven
percent of them, compared to a 36-percent infestation rate on cabbages
that are grown in bare soil with no clover nearby. I recommend that you
use this as a key metaphor in 2008, Leo. Make sure there are always a
few chickweed or henbit weeds surrounding your ripening tomatoes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES
This week my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES offer you a preview of
some major themes you'll be working and playing with in 2008.
Beginning next week, I'll devote three weeks to an in-depth discussion of
your long-range outlook for the coming 12 months.
To find out more about the Expanded Audio Horoscopes, go to
http://RealAstrology.com.
They're $6 if you access them on the Web, or $1.99 per minute over the
phone: 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Life is a punishment," wrote poet Robert
Frost. "All we can contribute to it is gracefulness in taking the
punishment." That's the opposite of my philosophy. I say life is a
miraculous gift, and the best way to express our gratitude is to be
fountains of generosity. Where do you stand on the issue, Virgo? Even if
you've had a view like Frost's up to this point in your journey, I think
you'll have good reasons to convert to my perspective in 2008. You will,
of course, have to be open to that possibility in order for it to happen. If
you're addicted to believing that life is punishment, you'll miss a flood of
clues contradicting that quaint notion.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The coming months will be a favorable time to
work hard on improving your number one relationship: you know, the one
between you and yourself. So I hope you'll have a lot of long, deep,
sympathetic conversations with yourself in 2008, even as you cut way
back on the scattered, careless, unloving conversations. To get your pep
talks off to a hot start, go to a mirror that makes you look your very best
and unleash a hail of wild praise and outrageous compliments toward the
gorgeous genius gazing back at you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I meditated on the perfect holiday gift for
you. What might inspire you to be in closest alignment with the cosmic
currents in 2008? I decided that if I could, I'd buy you a costume shop.
That way you could try on a thousand different masks and disguises. And
that would put you in the proper frame of mind for the assignment I hope
you will carry out all year long, which is to play with your identity and
experiment with new self-images and maybe even treat your life as an
epic theatrical extravaganza.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Due to the gravitational pull of the
Moon, the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down. A billion years ago, a
day lasted only 18 hours. In about 14 million years, it will be 48 hours
long. Imagine how much more you'll be able to accomplish in your future
incarnations with all that extra time. By then, I'm sure someone will have
also invented a pill that reduces the amount of sleep you need, further
boosting your capacity to get things done. In 2008, I predict you will be
blessed with a foreshadowing of that glorious period 14 million years from
now. You will work smarter and do things more efficiently and engage in
less wasted motion and maintain a crisper to-do list. Because of that, time
will seem to expand for you.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
HOMEWORK: What's the one feeling you want to feel more than any other
in 2008? Tell me by going to http://FreeWillAstrology.com and clicking
on "Email Rob."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
To join or leave the email list for this newsletter, or to change the address
where you receive it, go to:
http://www.freewillastrology.com/newsletter/
Once you do join, check all the below points to make sure you'll actually
receive the newsletter:
1. Add my address, televisionary@comcast.net, to your address book so
that the newsletter won't be treated as spam and filtered out.
2. Adjust your spam filter so it doesn't treat my address as a source of
spam.
3. Tell your company's IT group to allow my address to pass through any
filtering software they may have set up.
4. If my newsletters don't reach your inbox, look in your "Bulk Mail" or
"Junk Mail" folder.
5. The problems may not have to do with anything you do, but may
originate with your email provider. It may be using a "content filter" that
prevents my newsletter from ever reaching you at all. If you suspect
that's the case, complain. Tell your email provider to stop blocking my
newsletter from reaching you.
P.S. I totally respect your privacy. I'll never sell or give away your address
to anyone.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++