Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 14, 2009
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"What would you do if you knew that every good thing in your life
depended on your getting enough rest? Because it does."
- Martha Beck, *Steering by Starlight*
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The revised and expanded version of my book *PRONOIA IS THE
ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA* is now available.
With 55% fresh material beyond the original edition (60,000 additional
words and 75 new illustrations), it basically has a whole new extra
book inside it.
Order it here:
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/lxpnyt
Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/kkadtb
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Now here's an excerpt of a piece from the new book, "Unhappy Hour."
To read the whole thing, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/ygvg2fn
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UNHAPPY HOUR
You're invited to celebrate Unhappy Hour. It's a ceremony that gives you
a poetic license to rant and whine and howl about everything that hurts
you and makes you feel bad.
During this perverse grace period, there's no need for you to be inhibited
as you unleash your tortured squalls. You don't have to tone down the
extremity of your desolate clamors. Unhappy Hour is a ritually
consecrated excursion devoted to the full disclosure of your primal clash
and jangle.
Here's the catch: It's brief. It's concise. It's crisp. You dive into your
darkness for no more than 60 minutes, then climb back out, free and
clear. It's called Unhappy Hour, not Unhappy Day or Unhappy Week or
Unhappy Year.
Do you have the cheeky temerity to drench yourself in your paroxysmal
alienation from life? Unhappy Hour invites you to plunge in and surrender.
It dares you to scurry and squirm all the way down to the bottom of your
pain, break through the bottom of your pain, and fall down flailing in the
soggy, searing abyss, yelping and cringing and wallowing.
That's where you let your pain tell you every story it has to tell you. You
let your pain teach you every lesson it has to teach you.
But then it's over. The ritual ordeal is complete. And your pain has to take
a vacation until the next Unhappy Hour, which isn't until next week
sometime, or maybe next month.
You see the way the game works? Between this Unhappy Hour and the
next one, your pain has to shut up. It's not allowed to creep and seep all
over everything, staining the flow of your daily life. It doesn't have free
reign to infect you whenever it's itching for more power.
Your pain gets its succinct blast of glory, its resplendent climax, but
leaves you alone the rest of the time.
If performed regularly, Unhappy Hour serves as an exorcism that empties
you of psychic toxins, while at the same time -- miracle of miracles -- it
helps you squeeze every last drop of blessed catharsis out of those
psychic toxins.
Pronoia will then be able to flourish as you luxuriate more frequently in
rosy moods and broad-minded visions. You'll develop a knack for
cultivating smart joy and cagey optimism as your normal states of mind.
READ THE REST OF "UNHAPPY HOUR" HERE:
http://tinyurl.com/ygvg2fn
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
PRONOIA MEANS LEARNING HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR OWN
BRAIN
*The Eight-Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body*
by my old friend Antero Alli
http://bit.ly/4BFVo3
INTELLIGENT OPTIMISM IS REACHING PANDEMIC PROPORTIONS
Nominate your favorite intelligent optimist -- and see others' nominations
http://tinyurl.com/y98hyby
HEALTH MEANS BEING READY TO RESPOND TO LIFE'S UNPREDICTABILITY
The Heart's Beautiful Chaos
http://tinyurl.com/ydymzwp
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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Check out my new Facebook page:
http://tinyurl.com/nkay2n
Sign up for the RSS feed of this newsletter:
http://www.freewillastrology.com/newsletter/
My website's here:
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning October 15
Copyright 2009 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Were you ever a tiger in one of your past lives?
If so, this would be an excellent time to tap into that power. If you have
never lived the life of a tiger, would you be willing to imagine that you
did? During the coming week's challenges, you will really benefit from
being able to call on the specific kind of intelligence a tiger possesses, as
well as its speed, perceptivity, sense of smell, charisma, and beauty. Your
homework is to spend ten minutes envisioning yourself inhabiting the
body of a tiger.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your circumstances aren't as dire as you
feared, Scorpio. The freaky monster in the closet is bored with spooking
you and will soon be departing the premises. Meanwhile, one of your other
tormentors is about to experience some personal sadness that will soften
his or her heart toward you. There's more: The paralysis that has been
infecting your funny bone will miraculously cure itself, and the scheduled
revelation of the rest of your dirty secrets will be summarily canceled. I
hope you're not feeling so sorry for yourself that you fail to notice this
sudden turn in your luck. It may take an act of will for you to wake up to
the new dispensations that are available.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Jazz music is an intensified feeling of
nonchalance," said playwright Francoise Sagan. Keep that in mind during
the coming week, Sagittarius. Whether or not you actually play or listen
to jazz, do whatever's necessary to cultivate intensified feelings of
nonchalance. It's extremely urgent for you to be blithe and casual. You
desperately need to practice non-attachment as you develop your ability
to not care so much about things you can't control. You've got to be
ferociously disciplined as you transcend the worries and irritations that
won't really matter much in the big scheme of things.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "There are two rules for ultimate success
in life," wrote L. M. Boyd. "First, never tell everything you know." While
that may be the conventional wisdom about how to build up one's
personal power, I prefer to live by a different principle. Personally, I find
that as I divulge everything I know, I keep knowing more and more that
wasn't available to me before. The act of sharing connects me to fresh
sources. Open-hearted communication doesn't weaken me, but just the
reverse: It feeds my vitality. This is the approach I recommend to you in
the coming days, Capricorn. Do indeed tell everything you know.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Writing in *The New Yorker,* Adam Gopnik
named two characters from literature that well-educated people tend to
identify with. "Men choose Hamlet because every man sees himself as a
disinherited monarch," he said, while "women choose Alice [in
Wonderland] because every woman sees herself as the only reasonable
creature among crazy people who think that they are disinherited
monarchs." That's a funny thought in light of your current omens,
Aquarius, which suggest that you're a reasonable creature who clearly
sees how much you're like a disinherited monarch. The omens go on to
say that there's a good chance you will have excellent intuition about
what to do in order to at least partially restore yourself to power.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Dear Rob: Help! I have a sinking feeling that
the man I love and want to be with for the rest of my life is almost but
not quite courageous enough to be truly and deeply intimate with me.
What should I do? -Downcast Piscean." Dear Downcast: Ask yourself if
there's anything you can change about yourself that will help him feel
braver. For instance, is there any way, however small, in which you're
manipulative, untrustworthy, dishonest, or unkind? If so, fixing that in
yourself could allow your lover to feel a lot closer. By the way, it's an
excellent time, astrologically speaking, for all Pisceans to alter their inner
states in order to alter the world around them.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE
Since I put all my heart and soul into the written horoscopes I send out in
this newsletter, they're pretty nutritious. You may never need any of the
other stuff I create.
But if you ever do crave an added boost, you may want to sample my
Expanded Audio Horoscopes. They're different in tone and intent than the
written scopes, imbued with a little more of the psychologist in me, and a
little less of the poet.
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.
"The best part about your audio horoscopes is that they pat me on the
head and kick me in the ass at the same time." - Rita L., San Diego
"Your audio oracles go beyond helping me find the truth -- they inspire
me to find the WILD truth." - Patrick K., Montreal
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ARIES (March 21-April 19): You say you not only want to be loved, but
that you also want to love? Then learn the fantasies and symbols and
beliefs that hold people's lives together. Be interested in feeling the
crushing weight and deep comfort of their web of memories. Every now
and then, dive in and swim along in their stream of consciousness. And
yes, be willing to accompany them when they're writhing in their personal
hells as well as when they're exploring the suburbs of paradise. All these
tasks will be exceptionally worthy of your time in the coming weeks,
Aries.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Right now you're like a sulking cherry tree
that hasn't bloomed for years but then inexplicably erupts with pink
flowers in mid-autumn. You're like a child prodigy who lost her mojo for a
while and then suddenly recovers it when her old mentor comes back into
her life after a long absence. You're like a dormant volcano that without
any warning spurts out a round of seemingly prophetic smoke signals on
the eve of a great victory for the whole world.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Dear Rob: Thanks for being a continued source
of careful thinking! With the help of you and the rather ruthless teachers
who are my friends and loved ones, I'm learning the lessons that are most
important for me to learn -- like how rigorous I have to be in figuring out
my intentions, how impeccable I have to be with formulating my desires,
and how precise I have to be in expressing myself. Sometimes I wish I
could just go back to being an aimless street punk in Berkeley. But in the
end I prefer this tough path I've chosen. - Hard-Working Gemini." Dear
Hard-Working: This is an excellent phase in the Gemini life cycle to
concentrate on what you named: rigorously figuring out your intentions,
impeccably formulating your desires, and expressing yourself precisely.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The British playwright Colley Cibber, who was
born 55 years after Shakespeare died, thought that the Bard's historical
drama *Richard III* needed improvement. He made extensive revisions,
transposing scenes and inserting new material. For 150 years, Cibber's
version was widely performed, effectively replacing Shakespeare's
rendition. I suggest you borrow Cibber's strategy for your own in the
coming weeks. Take something you like and personalize it; make it into
your own. Be sure to acknowledge the original, of course. But have fun
blending your influence with the prototype as you create a useful and
amusing hybrid.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The corny but sometimes useful adages of folk
wisdom are still being created afresh in the 21st century. Their breeding
ground is no longer the tavern or marketplace, as in centuries past, but
rather the Internet. I've plucked one of these funky gems out of the
ethers for you to contemplate: "Noah's Ark was built by amateurs, while
the Titanic was built by professionals." How exactly does this apply to
you? According to my reading of the astrological omens, you're in a
phase when a good imagination will count for more than strict logic; when
innocent enthusiasm will take you further than know-it-all expertise; and
when all the work you do should have a playful spirit fueled by a
beginner's mind.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): To extract enough gold to make a wedding
ring, a mining company must process a ton of ore. In a similar way, many
writers generate a swamp of unusable sentences on their way to distilling
the precise message they really want to deliver. Please keep these
examples in mind as you evaluate your own recent progress, Virgo. It may
seem like you're moving at a crawl and producing little of worth. But
according to my analysis of the omens, you're on your way to producing
the equivalent of a gold ring.
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HOMEWORK: Compose a prayer in which you ask God or Goddess for
something you're not "supposed" to. Go to http://FreeWillAstrology.com
and click 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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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2009 Rob Brezsny
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