Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 26, 2011
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/v33o9h
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Read "Dissident Horoscopes for Samhain (and Halloween) Insurgents,"
by Job Disney, Rob Brezsny's only partially evil twin:
http://bit.ly/craweu
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The piece below is excerpted from my book
*PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA*
available at Amazon: http://bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: http://bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
FLIP-FLOP THE TRAUMATIC IMPRINT
Beauty and Truth Lab researcher Artemisia had just begun menstruating,
and was suffering from debilitating cramps. Massive doses of ibuprofen
were not relieving the distress, so she went to her regular acupuncturist,
Dr. Lily Ming, to get relief.
Dr. Ming had Artemisia lie down on the table and proceeded to insert 10
needles in her belly and hand and ear. Then Dr. Ming introduced a
treatment that Artemisia was unfamiliar with: She lightly pounded the nail
of Artemisia's left big toe with a small silver hammer for a few minutes.
"Why are you doing that?" Artemisia asked.
"It is good for the uterus," the doctor replied.
Indeed, Artemisia's cramps diminished as the doctor thumped, and in the
days to come they did not recur.
After the session, as Artemisia prepared to leave, the usually taciturn
Ming started up a conversation. Artemisia was surprised, but listened
attentively as Dr. Ming made a series of revelations. The most surprising
was Dr. Ming's description of a traumatic event from her own childhood.
During the military occupation of her native Manchuria, a province of
China, she was forced to witness Japanese soldiers torturing people she
loved. Their primary atrocity was using hammers to drive bamboo shoots
through their victims' big toes.
The moral of the story: Dr. Ming has accomplished the heroic feat of
reversing the meaning of her most traumatic imprint. She has turned a
symbol of pain into a symbol of healing.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF HEROES
Calendar of Jubilee Saints
Hundreds of radical cultural and political heroes are celebrated here, along
with the animating idea that guides this project -- the pleasure of
overthrowing the Planetary Work Machine.
http://tinyurl.com/3l6yvh8
REINVENTING THE THING THAT BOTHERS US MOST
*Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition* by
Charles Eisenstein
The book presents a vision about our money system that is original yet
commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises
of our civilization deepen. How can you live according to your ideals in a
world seemingly ruled by money?
http://bit.ly/pGtClQ
THE EVIDENCE KEEPS ACCUMULATING
If you feel lonely for news about vivid acts of redemption, splashy
devotion to creative transformation, & ballsy adventures in compassion,
tune in to my Alternate News page. Recent entries: childhood deaths in
the developing world keep going down; Peru's native people win a crucial
battle to guard their land from corporate decimation; Australia recognizes
third gender on passports; & hundreds more.
http://pronoiaresources.com/
(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 October 27
Copyright 2011 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You could preside over your very own Joy
Luck Club in the coming days. According to my reading of the
astrological omens, the levels of gratification possible could exceed your
normal quota by a substantial margin. You may want to Google the
Chinese character that means "double happiness" and use it as your ruling
symbol. And it might be time to explore and experiment with the
concepts of "super bliss," "sublime delight," and "brilliant ecstasy."
Halloween costume suggestions: a saintly hedonist from paradise; a
superhero whose superpower is the ability to experience extreme
amounts of pleasure; the luckiest person who ever lived.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): For over a hundred years, an English
woman named Lena Thouless celebrated her birthday on November 23.
When she was 106, her daughter found her birth certificate and realized
that mom had actually been born on November 22. I'm guessing that a
comparable correction is due in your own life, Sagittarius. Something
you've believed about yourself for a long time is about to be revealed as
slightly off. Halloween costume suggestion: a version of yourself from a
parallel reality or another dimension.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "Everyone is a genius at least once a
year," said scientist Georg Lichtenberg. According to my reading of the
astrological omens, Capricorn, the coming weeks will be your time to
confirm the truth of that aphorism. Your idiosyncratic brilliance is rising to
a fever pitch, and may start spilling over into crackling virtuosity any
minute now. Be discriminating about where you use that stuff; don't
waste it on trivia or on triumphs that are beneath you. Halloween
costume suggestions: Einstein, Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, Emily
Dickinson.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You're ready to shed juvenile theories,
amateurish approaches, or paltry ambitions. I'm not implying you're full of
those things; I'm just saying that if you have any of them, you've now got
the power to outgrow them. Your definition of success needs updating,
and I think you're up to the task. Why am I so sure? Well, because the Big
Time is calling you -- or at least a Bigger Time. Try this: Have
brainstorming sessions with an ally or allies who know your true potential
and can assist you in formulating aggressive plans to activate it more
fully. Halloween costume suggestions: a head honcho, big wheel, fat cat,
top dog.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I know a woman who claims on her Facebook
page that she speaks four languages: English, Elvish, Mermish, and
Parseltongue. (For those of you who don't read Tolkien or Harry Potter,
Elvish is the language of the elves, Mermish of the mermaids and mermen,
and Parseltongue of the serpents.) My Facebook friend probably also
knows Pig Latin, baby talk, and glossolalia, although she doesn't mention
them. I'd love for you to expand your mastery of foreign tongues, Pisces,
even if it's just one of the above -- and the coming weeks and months will
be an excellent time to begin. You will have a greater capacity for learning
new ways to talk than you have since childhood. Halloween costume
suggestion: a bilingual bisexual ambidextrous expert in reciting tongue
twisters.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Life is not just a diurnal property of large
interesting vertebrates," poet Gary Snyder reminds us in his book *The
Practice of the Wild.* "It is also nocturnal, anaerobic, microscopic,
digestive, fermentative: cooking away in the warm dark." I call this to
your attention, Aries, because according to my astrological reckoning,
you'd be wise to honor all the life that is cooking away in the warm dark.
It's the sun-at-midnight time of your long-term cycle; the phase when
your luminescent soul throbs with more vitality than your shiny ego.
Celebrate the unseen powers that sustain the world. Pay reverence to
what's underneath, elusive, and uncanny. Halloween costume tips: Draw
inspiration from the shadow, the dream, the moon, the depths.
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Free Will Astrology's
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES
feature invitations to dive deeper,
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Are you interested
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Speaking on behalf of the cosmic powers-
that-be, I hereby give you permission to make your love bigger and
braver. Raise it to the next level, Taurus! Help it find a higher expression.
Wherever your love has felt pinched or claustrophobic, treat it to a
liberation. If it has been hemmed in by a lack of imagination, saturate it
with breezy fantasies and flamboyant dreams. Cut it free from petty
emotions that have wounded it, and from sour memories that have
weighed it down. What else could you do to give love the poetic license it
needs to thrive? Halloween costume suggestion: the consummate lover.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You've heard the old platitude, "If life gives you
lemons, make lemonade." The owner of a pizzeria in Mildura, Australia
updated that sentiment in 2010 when the area was invaded by swarms of
locusts. "They're crunchy and tasty," he said of the bugs, which is why he
used them as a topping for his main dish. It so happens that his inventive
approach would make good sense for you right now, Gemini. So if life
gives you a mini-plague of locusts, make pizza garnished with the
delectable creatures. Halloween costume suggestion: pizza delivery
person carrying this novel delicacy.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Some doors are almost always locked. On
those infrequent occasions when they are ajar, they remain so for only a
brief period before being closed and bolted again. In the coming weeks,
Cancerian, I urge you to be alert for the rare opening of such a door.
Through luck or skill or a blend of both, you may finally be able to gain
entrance through -- or perhaps exit from -- a door or portal that has been
shut tight for as long as you remember. Halloween costume suggestion:
the seeker who has found the magic key.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Microbiologist Raul Cano managed to obtain a 45-
million-year-old strain of yeast from an ancient chunk of amber. It was still
alive! Collaborating with a master brewer, he used it to make a brand of
beer. One critic praised Fossil Fuel pale ale for its sweetness and clove
aroma, while another said it has a "complex and well-developed taste
profile." I regard their successful project as a good metaphor for the task
you have ahead of you in the coming weeks, Leo: extracting the vital
essence from an old source, and putting it to work in the creation of a
valuable addition to your life. Halloween costume suggestions: a friendly
ghost, a polite and helpful mummy, a cloned version of Buddha, the
person you were as a child.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "When I read a book on Einstein's physics of
which I understood nothing, it doesn't matter," testified Pablo Picasso,
"because it will make me understand something else." You might want to
adopt that approach for your own use in the coming weeks, Virgo. It's
almost irrelevant what subjects you study and investigate and rack your
brains trying to understand; the exercise will help you stretch your ability
to master ideas that have been beyond your reach -- and maybe even
stimulate the eruption of insights that have been sealed away in your
subconscious mind. Halloween costume suggestion: an eager student, a
white-coated lab researcher, Curious George.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Sit, walk, or run, but don't wobble," says the
Zen proverb. Now I'm passing it on to you as advice worthy of your
consideration. Maintaining clarity of purpose will be crucial in the coming
weeks. Achieving crispness of delivery will be thoroughly enjoyable.
Cultivating unity among all your different inner voices will be a high art
you should aspire to master. Whatever you do, Libra, do it with relaxed
single-mindedness. Make a sign that says "No wobbling," and tape it to
your mirror. Halloween costume suggestion: Be the superhero known as
No Wobbling.
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Homework: Scare yourself with your exquisite beauty. Freak yourself out
by realizing how amazing you are. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2011 Rob Brezsny
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