Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 2, 2013
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/18nU3kj
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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 hear it as a spoken-word piece, go here: http://bit.ly/yBmWBg
GLORY IN THE HIGHEST
Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment
you wake up. Through some magic you don't fully understand, you're still
breathing and your heart is beating, even though you've been
unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that's just right for
your body's needs, as it was before you fell asleep.
You can see! Light of many colors floods into your eyes, registered by
nerves that took God or evolution or some process millions of years to
perfect.
The interesting gift of these vivid hues is furthermore made possible by
an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually
detonates nuclear explosions in order to convert its own body into light
and heat and energy for your personal use.
Your hands work wonderfully well. Your heart circulates your blood all the
way out to replenish the energy of the muscles and nerves in your fingers
and palms and wrists. And after your blood has delivered its blessings, it
finds its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This wondrous mystery
recurs over and over again without stopping every minute of your life.
You can smell intoxicating aromas. You can hear provocative and soothing
sounds. You can taste a thousand different tastes. How is any of this
possible? You can think thoughts any time you want -- big, wide, colorful
thoughts or tiny dark burrowing thoughts. You can revel and wallow in
great oceans of emotion. What colossal secret intelligence or improbable
series of fabulous accidents conspired to bestow these superpowers upon
you?
TO READ AND HEAR THE REST OF THIS PIECE, go here:
http://bit.ly/yBmWBg
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban
for standing up for girls' education, told world leaders at the United
Nations to send books, not guns, to war-torn countries such as
Afghanistan.
http://tinyurl.com/mh88cps
The return of sea otters to an estuary on the central Californian coast has
significantly improved the health of seagrass.
http://tinyurl.com/krgstpn
From pronoiac history: In 1959, Volvo invented the 3-point seat belt,
then gave free license to all other car manufacturers to use it.
http://tinyurl.com/qddr9q6
(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 3
Copyright 2013 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I periodically hike alone into the serene hills
north of San Francisco and perform a set of my songs for the birds,
insects, squirrels, and trees. Recently I discovered that British comedian
Milton Jones tried a similar experiment. He did his stand-up act for a herd
of cows on a farm in Hertfordshire. I can't speak for Jones' motivations,
but one of the reasons I do my nature shows is because they bring out
my wild, innocent, generous spirit. Now is a good time for you to do
something similar for yourself, Libra. What adventures can you undertake
that will fully activate your wild, innocent, generous spirit?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Are you anxious and agitated, afraid that
you're careening out of control? Is there a flustered voice in your head
moaning, "Stop the insanity!"? Well, relax, dear Scorpio. I promise you
that you no longer have to worry about going cray-cray. Why? Because
you have already gone cray-cray, my friend. That is correct. You slipped
over the threshold a few days ago, and have been living in Bonkersville
ever since. And since you are obviously still alive and functioning, I think
it's obvious that the danger has passed. Here's the new truth: If you
surrender to the uproar, if you let it teach you all it has to teach you, you
will find a lively and intriguing kind of peace.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): To give you the oracle that best
matches your current astrological omens, I've borrowed from
"Sweetness," a poem by Stephen Dunn. I urge you to memorize it or write
it on a piece of paper that you will carry around with you everywhere you
go. Say Dunn's words as if they were your own: "Often a sweetness
comes / as if on loan, stays just long enough // to make sense of what it
means to be alive, / then returns to its dark / source. As for me, I don't
care // where it's been, or what bitter road / it's traveled / to come so
far, to taste so good."
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In her book *Teaching a Stone to Talk,*
Annie Dillard apologizes to God and Santa Claus and a nice but eccentric
older woman named Miss White, whom she knew as a child. "I am sorry I
ran from you," she writes to them. "I am still running from that
knowledge, that eye, that love from which there is no refuge. For you
meant only love, and love, and I felt only fear, and pain." Judging from
your current astrological omens, Capricorn, I'd say that now would be a
good time for you to do something similar: Take an inventory of the
beauty and love and power you have sought to escape and may still be
trying to avoid. You're finally ready to stop running and embrace at least
some of that good stuff.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): *The Dragon Lives Again* is a 1977 film
that tells the story of martial arts legend Bruce Lee fighting bad guys in
the underworld. Among the villains he defeats are Dracula, James Bond,
the Godfather, Clint Eastwood, and the Exorcist. I urge you to use this as
inspiration, Aquarius. Create an imaginary movie in your mind's eye.
You're the hero, of course. Give yourself a few superpowers, and
assemble a cast of scoundrels from your past -- anyone who has done you
wrong. Then watch the epic tale unfold as you do with them what Bruce
Lee did to Dracula and company. Yes, it's only pretend. But you may be
surprised at how much this helps you put your past behind you. Think of
it as a purgative meditation that will free you to move in the direction of
the best possible future.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): After studying the myths and stories of many
cultures throughout history, Joseph Campbell arrived at a few conclusions
about the nature of the human quest. Here's one that's apropos for you
right now: "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." He
came up with several variations on this idea, including this one: "The very
cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are
looking for." I urge you to consider making this your operative hypothesis
for the coming weeks, Pisces.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE
Factual information and reasonable thinking alone are not sufficient to
guide you through life's labyrinthine tests. You need and deserve regular
deliveries of uncanny revelation.
One of your inalienable rights as a human being should therefore be to
receive mysteriously useful omens on a regular basis. In this spirit, I offer
you the free weekly horoscopes you read here.
If you ever want more, and think it's worth paying for, try my EXPANDED
AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're available here: http://RealAstrology.com
Register and/or sign in at http://RealAstrology.com.
You can also access them by phone:
1-877-873-4888
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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you good at haggling? Do you maybe
even enjoy the challenge of negotiating for a better price, of angling for a
fairer deal? The coming week will be a favorable time to make extensive
use of this skill. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you
will thrive on having friendly arguments with just about everyone, from
your buddies to your significant other to your mommy to God Herself.
Everywhere you go, I encourage you to engage in lively discussions as you
hammer out compromises that will serve you well. Be cheerful and
adaptable and forceful.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In David Markson's experimental novel
*Wittgenstein's Mistress,* the protagonist fantasizes about the winter she
lived at the Louvre Museum in Paris. She says that to keep warm she
made big fires and burned some of the museum's precious artifacts. I'm
hoping you won't do anything remotely resembling that mythic event in
the coming week, Taurus. I understand that you may be going through a
cold spell -- a time when you're longing for more heat and light. But I beg
you not to sacrifice enduring beauty in order to ameliorate your
temporary discomfort. This, too, shall pass.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Don't say you want love," writes San
Francisco author Stephen Sparks. "Say you want the morning light
through a paint-flecked window; say you want a gust of wind scraping
leaves along the pavement and hills rolling toward the sea; say you want
to notice, in a tree you walk past every day, the ruins of a nest exposed
as the leaves fall away; a slow afternoon of conversation in a shadowy
bar; the smell of bread baking." That's exactly the oracle I want to give
you, Gemini. In my opinion, you can't afford to be generic or blank in your
requests for love. You must be highly specific. You've got to ask for the
exact feelings and experiences that will boost the intensity of your lust
for life. (Here's Sparks' Tumblr page: invisiblestories.tumblr.com.)
CANCER (June 21-July 22): "The world breaks everyone, and afterward,
many are stronger in the broken places," wrote Cancerian writer Ernest
Hemingway. By my estimation, my fellow Crabs, we are now entering a
phase of our astrological cycle when we can make dramatic progress in
healing the broken places in ourselves. But even better than that: As we
deal dynamically with the touchy issues that caused our wounds, we will
become stronger than we were before we got broken.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Let's hope you have given deep thought to
understanding who you are at this moment of your life. Let's also hope
that you have developed a clear vision of the person you would like to
become in, say, three years. How do you feel about the gap between the
current YOU and the future YOU? Does it oppress you? Does it motivate
you? Maybe a little of both? I'll offer you the perspective of actress
Tracee Ellis Ross. "I am learning every day," she told *Uptown Magazine,*
"to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire
me and not terrify me."
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Do the words "purity" and "purify" have any
useful purpose? Or have they been so twisted by religious
fundamentalists and mocked by decadent cynics that they're mostly just
farcical? I propose that you take them seriously in the coming week. Give
them your own spin. For instance, you could decide to purify yourself of
petty attitudes and trivial desires that aren't in alignment with your
highest values. You might purify yourself of self-deceptions that have
gotten you into trouble and purify yourself of resentments that have
blocked your creative energy. At the very least, Virgo, cleanse your body
with extra-healthy food, good sleep, massage, exercise, and sacred sex.
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Homework: Name ten personal possessions that you'd put in a time
capsule to be dug up by your descendants in 500 years. Testify at
Freewillastrology.com.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2013 Rob Brezsny
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