Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
May 12, 2010
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How is the revised and expanded version of my book *PRONOIA IS THE
ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA* different from the original edition?
The revised and expanded version has over 63,500 new words and 73
new illustrations. That's 55% additional material beyond what the first
edition had.
There are 2 extra chapters, 18 completely new pieces, plus 14 new
Sacred Advertisements. Twenty-one of the original pieces of the book
have been revised and expanded, as well.
The book is available at Amazon:
http://bit.ly/Pronoia
and also at Powells:
http://bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Below is an excerpt.
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THE LITERARY EQUIVALENT OF A SEX-CHANGE
(To read the entire text of this piece, go here: http://bit.ly/SexChange)
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.
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 . . . .
TO READ THE REST OF THIS ESSAY, GO HERE: http://bit.ly/SexChange
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
THE POWER AND THE GLORY REVEALED!
Raw beauty
http://tinyurl.com/y5mypy8
WHO'S TO SAY THIS ISN'T PRONOIAC?
The Kid's Smiling!
http://tinyurl.com/yyj7ak5
WE CAN'T IMAGINE THE WONDERS TO COME
An Italian inventor has developed a huge three-dimensional printer that
can print entire buildings out of sand and an inorganic binder.
http://tinyurl.com/y4bl2k4
(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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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning May 13
Copyright 2010 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "I can't live the button-down life," says
cartoon character Homer Simpson. "I want it all: the terrifying lows, the
dizzying highs, the creamy middles." Born May 10, Homer is unusual for a
Taurus. Many of your tribe love the creamy middles but are quite content
to live without the terrifying lows, even if that means being deprived of
your fair share of dizzying highs. While that may sometimes seem like a
boring limitation, I don't expect it to be any time soon. The creamy
middles that are looming for you are the lushest, plushest creamy middles
I've seen in a long time. Terrifying lows and dizzying highs will be
irrelevant.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Spanish painter Francisco Goya created an
etching entitled "El Sueño de la Razón Produce Monstruos." Its two
possible translations have very different meanings: "The sleep of reason
produces monsters" or "The dream of reason produces monsters." The
first version suggests that when our reasoning faculties go dormant,
we're susceptible to doing dumb and crazy things. The second version
implies that if we rely excessively on our reasoning faculty, it acquires a
lunatic hubris that devalues our emotions and distorts our imagination.
You're more susceptible to the former than the latter right now, Gemini,
but it's crucial that you avoid both. A way out of your pain is available if
you use your reason just right -- neither too little nor too much.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Some of your illusions seeped into you before
you learned to talk. Others sneaked into you later, while you were busy
figuring out how to become yourself. Eventually, you even made
conscious choices to adopt certain illusions because they provided you
with comfort and consolation. There's no need to be ashamed of this. It's
a natural part of being a human being. Having said that, I'm happy to
announce that you're entering a phase when you will have the power to
shed at least some of your illusions -- especially the ones you consciously
chose -- in ways that don't hurt you. To begin the process, declare this
intention: "I have the courage to see life as it really is."
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): According to a statute in the state of Indiana, you
may not use your bare hands to catch a fish from a lake. In Fairbanks,
Alaska, you're breaking the law if you let a moose slurp an alcoholic drink.
In Flowery Branch, Georgia, you may be arrested if you shout out "Snake!"
Arizona doesn't permit you to let a donkey sleep in your bathtub. And yet
I've got to say that you Leos could probably get away with all of these
acts and more in the coming weeks. The omens suggest that your levels
of freedom are extremely high, as is your amount of slack. You'll have
clearance to do many things you wouldn't normally be able to do.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I didn't think it was possible, but paranoid
visions of doom and gloom have become even more popular in the past
few years than ever before. Apocalypse-watching is no longer a fringe
hobby reserved for conspiracy fetishists; it has gone mainstream. And yet
here I am in the midst of the supposed mayhem, babbling my eccentric
ideas about how we are living in the single most wonderful time in the
history of civilization. So let me ask you a crucial question, especially if
you're one of the millions of normal people who believes that cynicism is a
supreme sign of intelligence: Do you really want to be getting your
fortune told by a rebel optimist like me? You should know that all my
horoscopes are rooted in the hypothesis that expecting the best makes
you happier, safer, kinder, wilder, stronger, and smarter. What happens in
the coming weeks will, in my opinion, be dramatic proof of that.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The bad news is that climate change is really
underway. That's why Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal has sunk
beneath the waves, swallowed up by rising sea levels and shifts in
monsoon patterns. The good news is that its disappearance has ended a
dispute between India and Bangladesh, both of which claimed it as their
own. There's nothing left to fight over. I foresee a metaphorically
comparable scenario coming to your life, Libra: an act of nature that will
render a conflict irrelevant.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED HOROSCOPE
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.
"Your expanded horoscopes get more personal and intimate with me than
some of my closest friends. Thanks for the loving reflections."
- Ari S., Ann Arbor, MI
"Your audio 'scopes have a knack for waking me up from whatever
random dream has sneaked into my brain and rendered me half-blind."
- Teresa F., Boston, MA
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Some experts say methamphetamine is more
addictive than any other drug. Here's one reason why, according to
"Mothers Against Methamphetamines" founder Dr. Mary Holley: "The
effect of an IV hit of methamphetamine is the equivalent of 10 orgasms
all on top of each other lasting for 30 minutes to an hour, with a feeling
of arousal that lasts for another day and a half." At least that's what it's
like in the early stages of using the drug. After a while, hell sets in and the
body is no longer happy. Luckily, you Scorpios won't be tempted to fall
victim to meth splurges any time soon. Without relying on anything more
than your natural powers, your capacity for experiencing erotic pleasure
will be substantial.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Your eyes can discriminate between
about 500 various shades of gray. Let's hope your moral compass is as
precise in its power to distinguish subtle differences. Why? Because there
will be no easy black-versus-white decisions to make in the near future; no
simple, foolproof way to determine the distinctions between good and
bad. I recommend that for now you give up hope of achieving utter
certainty, and instead celebrate the refined pleasures of nuanced,
complicated truth.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): These days you have an extraordinary
capacity to perform magic. And when I use that word "magic," I mean it in
a very specific sense: causing practical changes to occur in accordance
with your most noble and beautiful desires. I'm not talking about the kind
of "magic" that helps you gratify mediocre wishes or tawdry fantasies. I'm
not saying you should go on an acquisitive binge as you gather up booty
and bragging points. Rather I'm letting you know that you have the power
to create inspiring transformations in the way your life works.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Do you want to know where all the power
lies for you right now? It's nowhere. Do you want to know what the
nature of that power is? It's nothing. But before you jump to conclusions
about the meaning of what I just said, read this passage from Lao Tzu's
*Tao Te Ching,* translated by Stephen Mitchell: "We join spokes together
in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We
shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever
we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that
makes it livable."
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): A Pisces woman I know was harried by ant
swarms invading her kitchen. She could have run out to the drug store
and brought home loads of poisonous little ant hotels. Instead, she gave
her imagination the go-ahead to brainstorm. Soon she'd come up with a
solution. She scooped up a host of ants and threw them in a blender with
the other ingredients of her smoothie, then drank it all down. The next
day, all the ants had departed, as if scared off by the Great Devourer. I
suggest you learn from her example, both in the sense of being open to
outlandish possibilities and in the sense of finding alternate ways to deal
with adversaries.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): What happens when someone "sells out"?
Typically, it refers to a person who overrides her highest artistic
standards or her soul's mandates in order to make a bundle of money. But
I want to enlarge the definition to encompass any behavior that seeks
popular appeal at the expense of authenticity, or any action that
sacrifices integrity for the sake of gaining power. I think you have to be
especially on guard against this lapse in the coming days, Aries -- not only
in yourself but also in those you're close to.
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HOMEWORK: For help in reinterpreting your problems as opportunities, go
here: http://bit.ly/ShadowBless. Send testimony to
Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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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
2010 Rob Brezsny
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