Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
March 21, 2012
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/GzBVaG
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BY A MUTANT, FOR THE MUTANTS
One of my favorite thinkers and writers on the planet is my friend
Jonathan Zap. His insights are simultaneously cosmic and intimate,
shocking and healing. Of all the visionary philosophers, he offers the
smartest perspective about the world-shaking evolutionary changes we're
in the midst of. He has published his first book, which I consider a major
event: *Crossing the Event Horizon: Human Metamorphosis and the
Singularity Archetype.*
Find out how to read the first 40 pages free, or else buy it:
http://bit.ly/A4Xn9S
Find out more about the book:
http://bit.ly/x8TgMe
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My book
*PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA*
is available at Amazon: http://bit.ly/Pronoia
or Powells: http://bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
Below is an excerpt. To read the whole text, go here:
http://bit.ly/BeautyandTruthLab
WHAT IS THE BEAUTY AND TRUTH LAB?
. . . On one occasion, an eight-lane highway at rush hour turned into a
temporary Beauty and Truth Lab. It was just a few days after my return
from the Burning Man festival where the dream of the Lab had hatched. I
was driving on Highway 101, the artery that bisects Marin County.
As I cruised at 65 mph between Larkspur and Corte Madera, a blonde in a
Jaguar convertible with the top down passed me on the right. Perhaps
distracted by the chat she was enjoying on her cell phone, she suddenly
zipped in front of me. After hitting my brakes to avoid rear-ending her, I
honked my horn to express my annoyance. In response, she careened
over to the left lane, then slowed down and waited for me to catch up.
I avoided eye contact at first, but finally looked over. Quaking with
agitation, she was flashing me a middle-finger salute and a mad face as
fierce as a Tibetan demon. Her car was veering closer to mine. Might she
actually crash into me on purpose?
I was quaking with agitation myself. My adrenaline surged, threatening to
explode to mushroom cloud proportions. Curses were rising from my gut
to throat. At the same time, I resisted it all. I didn't want to be possessed
by stupid rage because of the carelessness of a bad driver. Such a trivial
eruption of my fight-or-flight instinct was against my religion.
Then a miracle happened. As if through divine intervention, without any
prompting from my will, fond memories of Burning Man surged into my
imagination. I was back there on the ancient lake bed with my stack of
baby wipes, intimately conversing with the Goddess of the sun. I could
hear the thump of music in the distance and feel the desert breeze on my
cheeks . . .
TO READ THE REST, go here: http://bit.ly/BeautyandTruthLab
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
PRONOIA AT THE HEART OF THE LOST CITY
Work, Reimagined: Detroit Gets Creative. How residents of America's
most famously down and out city are building livelihoods that also rebuild
their communities.
http://tinyurl.com/7u2mjkk
UNITING BEHIND PRONOIAC GOALS
Nicaragua's push to generate 94 percent of its own electricity from
renewable resources by 2016 without damaging the environment has
united the country.
http://tinyurl.com/6tp8ylz
YOUR DAILY MINIMUM REQUIREMENT OF AMAZING EVERYDAY BEAUTY
People who gather seafood from underneath the ice when the tide goes
out.
http://tinyurl.com/4xujqpr
(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 March 22
Copyright 2012 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Not bad for a few weeks' work, or play, or
whatever it is you want to call this tormented, inspired outburst. Would it
be too forward of me to suggest that you've gone a long way toward
outgrowing the dark fairy tale that had been haunting your dreams for so
long? And yet all this may just be a warm-up for your next
metamorphosis, in which you make an audacious new commitment to
becoming what you *really* want to be when you grow up.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): This week I'm taking a break from my usual
pep talks. I think it's for the best. If I deliver a kind-hearted kick in the
butt, maybe it will encourage you to make a few course corrections,
thereby making it unnecessary for fate to get all tricky and funky on you.
So here you go, Taurus: 1. The last thing you need is someone to support
your flaws and encourage you in your delusions. True friends will offer
snappy critiques and crisp advice. 2. Figure out once and for all why you
keep doing a certain deed that's beneath you, then gather the strength
and get the help you need to quit it. 3. It's your duty to stop doing your
duty with such a somber demeanor and heavy tread. To keep from
sabotaging the good it can accomplish, you've got to put more pleasure
into it.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The German word *Weltratsel* can be
translated as "World Riddle." Coined by the philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche, it refers to questions like "What is the meaning of existence?"
and "What is the nature of reality?" According to my reading of the
astrological omens, Gemini, you're now primed to deepen your
understanding of the World Riddle. For the next few weeks, you will have
an enhanced ability to pry loose useful secrets about some big mysteries.
Certain passages in the Book of Life that have always seemed like
gobbledygook to you will suddenly make sense. Here's a bonus: Every
time you decipher more of the World Riddle, you will solve another small
piece of your Personal Riddle.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): "The reasonable man adapts himself to the
world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." So
wrote George Bernard Shaw in his book *Man and Superman.* From the
hints I have gleaned, Cancerian, you are now in an ideal phase to be the
sort of unreasonable man or woman who gets life to adapt so as to better
serve you and your dreams. Even if it's true that the emphasis in the past
has often been on you bending and shaping yourself to adjust to the
circumstances others have wrought, the coming weeks could be different.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In his book *Word Hero,* Jay Heinrichs offers us
advice about how to deliver pithy messages that really make an impact.
Here's one tip that would be especially useful for you in the coming days:
*Exaggerate precisely.* Heinrichs gives an example from the work of the
illustrious raconteur, American author Mark Twain. Twain did not write, "In
a single day, New England's weather changes a billion times." Rather, he
said, "In the spring I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside
of four-and twenty hours." Be inspired by Twain's approach in every way
you can imagine, Leo. Make things bigger and wilder and more expansive
everywhere you go, but do it with exactitude and rigor.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "Liminality" is a term that refers to the
betwixt and between state. It's dawn or dusk, when neither night nor day
fully rules. It's the mood that prevails when a transition is imminent or a
threshold beckons. During a rite of passage, liminality is the phase when
the initiate has left his or her old way of doing things but has not yet
been fully accepted or integrated into the new way. Mystical traditions
from all over the world recognize this as a shaky but potent situation -- a
time and place when uncertainty and ambiguity reign even as exciting
possibilities loom. In my estimate, Virgo, you're now ensconced in
liminality.
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SOME OF THE STUFF IS FREE, SOME OF THE STUFF COSTS MONEY
Here's a page with a lot of the free stuff I offer: http://bit.ly/FreeWork
Besides all that, I also offer in-depth audio horoscopes that cost a little
money. Find out more at http://RealAstrology.com.
The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888.
"Your expanded audio horoscopes are the next best thing to actually
having you here next to me to remind me who I really am." - Alyssa R.,
Des Moines, Iowa
"When I listen to your audio 'scopes, my free will lights up." - Alex D., Los
Angeles
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Argentinian writer Antonio Porchia said
there were two kinds of shadows: "some hide, others reveal." In recent
weeks, you've been in constant contact with the shadows that hide. But
beginning any moment now, you'll be wandering away from those rather
frustrating enigmas and entering into a dynamic relationship with more
evocative mysteries: the shadows that reveal. Be alert for the shift so you
won't get caught assuming that the new shadows are just like the old
ones.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Every winter, hordes of ants have overrun
my house. At least that was true up until recently. This winter, the pests
stayed away, and that has been very good news. I didn't have to fight
them off with poison and hand-to-hand combat. The bad news? The
reason they didn't invade was because very little rain fell, as it's supposed
to during Northern California winters. The ants weren't driven above
ground by the torrents that usually soak the soil. And so now drought
threatens our part of the world. Water shortages may loom. I propose
that this scenario is a metaphor for a dilemma you may soon face, Scorpio
-- except that you will have a choice in the matter: Would you rather deal
with a lack of a fundamental resource or else an influence that's
bothersome but ultimately pretty harmless?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You're entering one of the most
buoyant phases of your astrological cycle. Your mandate is to be brash
and bouncy, frothy and irrepressible. To prepare you, I've rounded up
some exclamatory declarations by poet Michael McClure. Take them with
you as you embark on your catalytic adventures. They'll help you
cultivate the right mood. McClure: "Everything is natural. The light on
your fingertips is starlight. Life begins with coiling -- molecules and
nebulae. Cruelty, selfishness, and vanity are boring. Each self is many
selves. Reason is beauty. Light and darkness are arbitrary divisions.
Cleanliness is as undefinable and as natural as filth. The physiological body
is pure spirit. Monotony is madness. The frontier is both outside and
inside. The universe is the messiah. The senses are gods and goddesses.
Where the body is -- there are all things."
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You know those tall, starched white hats
that many chefs wear? Traditionally they had 100 pleats, which denoted
the number of ways a real professional could cook an egg. I urge you to
wear one of those hats in the coming weeks, Capricorn -- or whatever the
equivalent symbol might be for your specialty. It's high time for you to
express your ingenuity in dealing with what's simple and familiar . . . to be
inventive and versatile as you show how much you can accomplish using
just the basics.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): As I was driving my car in San Francisco late
one night, I arrived at a traffic signal that confused me. The green light
was radiant and steady, but then so was the red light. I came to a
complete stop and waited until finally, after about two minutes, the red
faded. I suspect you may soon be facing a similar jumble of mixed signals,
Aquarius. If that happens, I suggest you do what I did. Don't keep moving
forward; pause and sit still until the message gets crisp and clear.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): A woman named Joan Ginther has won the
Texas Lottery four times, collecting over $20 million. Is she freakishly
lucky? Maybe not, according to Nathaniel Rich's article in the August
2011 issue of *Harper's.* He notes that Ginther has a PhD in math from
Stanford, and wonders if she has used her substantial understanding of
statistics to game the system. (More here: tinyurl.com/LuckAmuck.) Be
inspired by her example, Pisces. You now have exceptional power to
increase your good fortune through hard work and practical ingenuity.
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Homework: What's the necessary luxury you deny yourself for no good
reason? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2012 Rob Brezsny
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