Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter http://ezezine.com
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
November 6, 2013
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/1707tk3
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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.
TORRENTIAL PRONOIA THERAPY, Part One
Experiments and exercises in becoming a blasphemously reverent, lustfully
compassionate, eternally changing Master of Transgressive Beauty
1. Take inventory of the extent to which your "No" reflex
dominates your life. Notice for 24 hours (even in your dreams) how often
you say or think:
"No."
"That's not right."
"I don't like them."
"I don't agree with that."
"They don't like me."
"That should be different from what it is."
Then retrain yourself to say "YES" at least 51 percent of the time.
Start the transformation by saying "YES" aloud 22 times right now.
2. Go to the ugliest or most forlorn place you know -- a drugstore parking
lot, the front porch of a crack house, a toxic waste dump, or the place
that symbolizes your secret shame -- and build a shrine devoted to
beauty, truth, and love.
Here are some suggestions about what to put in your shrine: a silk scarf; a
smooth rock on which you've inscribed a haiku or joke with a felt-tip pen;
coconut cookies or ginger candy; pumpkin seeds and an origami crane; a
green kite shaped like a dragon; a music CD you love; a photo of your
hero; a votive candle carved with your word of power; a rubber ducky; a
bouquet of fresh beets; a print of Van Gogh's *Starry Night.*
3. Late at night when there's no traffic, stride down the middle of an
empty road that by day is crawling with cars. Dance, careen, and sing
songs that fill you with pleasurable emotions. Splay your arms
triumphantly as you extemporize prayers in which you make extravagant
demands and promises. Give pet names to the trees you pass, declare
your admiration for the workers who made the road, and celebrate your
sovereignty over a territory that usually belongs to heavy machines and
their operators.
4. What causes happiness? Brainstorm about it. Map out the foundations
of your personal science of joy. Get serious about defining what makes
you feel good. To get you started, I'll name some experiences that might
rouse your gratification: engaging in sensual pleasure; seeking the truth;
being kind and moral; contemplating the meaning of life; escaping your
routine; purging pent-up emotions. Do any of these work for you? Name
at least ten more.
5. In response to our culture's ever-rising levels of noise and frenzy, rites
of purification have become more popular. Many people now recognize
the value of taking periodic retreats. Withdrawing from their usual
compulsions, they go on fasts, avoid mass media, practice celibacy, or
even abstain from speaking. While we applaud cleansing ceremonies like
this, we recommend balancing them with periodic outbreaks of an equal
and opposite custom: the Bliss Blitz.
During this celebration, you tune out the numbing banality of the daily
grind. But instead of shrinking into asceticism, you indulge in uninhibited
explorations of joy, release, and expansion. Turning away from the mildly
stimulating distractions you seek out when you're bored or worried, you
become inexhaustibly resourceful as you search for unsurpassable sources
of cathartic pleasure. Try it for a day or a week: the Bliss Blitz.
6. When many people talk about their childhoods, they emphasize the
alienating, traumatic experiences they had, and fail to report the good
times. This seems dishonest -- a testament to the popularity of cynicism
rather than a reflection of objective truth.
I don't mean to downplay the way your early encounters with pain
demoralized your spirit. But as you reconnoiter the promise of pronoia,
it's crucial for you to extol the gifts you were given in your early years: all
the helpful encounters, kind teachings, and simple acts of grace that
helped you bloom.
In Homer's epic tale *The Odyssey,* he described nepenthe, a mythical
drug that induced the forgetfulness of pain and trouble. I'd like to
imagine, in contrast, a potion that stirs up memories of delight, serenity,
and fulfillment. Fantasize that you have taken such a tonic. Spend an hour
or two remembering the glorious moments from your past.
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My book *THE TELEVISIONARY ORACLE* has been reprinted:
http://bit.ly/Televisionary
See the cover: http://bit.ly/yHbHHF
Here's what it's about: http://bit.ly/xpMhTz
Read the first four chapters here: http://bit.ly/y6br6D
Here's what novelist Tom Robbins said after reading the book: "I've seen
the future of American literature and its name is Rob Brezsny."
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
All of this week's Pronoiac Resources come directly from the wonderful
pronoiac *YES!* magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.org/
For Safer Factories, CEOs Are Listening to Workers on the Frontlines
The future of corporate responsibility means hearing firsthand from
factory workers about their conditions.
http://tinyurl.com/m57tskl
Slave and Slaveholder Descendants Break Free of History's Trauma --
Together
Responding to past traumas like slavery and acts of terrorism can heal us
-- and future generations.
http://tinyurl.com/kzpx4xy
A Roadmap to a World Without Drone Proliferation?
It's not too late to forge a drone-free future. International treaties have
already helped ban landmines and nuclear weapons testing—and could
mitigate drone warfare's worst atrocities.
http://tinyurl.com/mj4zjfv
(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 November 7
Copyright 2013 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Not for all the whiskey in heaven," begins a
poem by Charles Bernstein. "Not for all the flies in Vermont. Not for all
the tears in the basement. Not for a million trips to Mars. Not for all the
fire in hell. Not for all the blue in the sky." Can you guess what he's
driving at? Those are the things he will gladly do without in order to serve
his passion. "No, never, I'll never stop loving you," he concludes.
According to my understanding of your astrological cycle, Scorpio, now is
a good time for you to make a comparable pledge. What is the one
passion you promise to devote yourself to above all others? And what are
you willing to live without in order to focus on that passion? Be
extravagant, pure, wild, and explicit.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Dmitri Razumikhin is a character in
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel *Crime and Punishment.* His surname is
derived from the Russian word for "reason." At one point he makes a
drunken speech that includes these observations: "It's by talking
nonsense that one gets to the truth! Not one single truth has ever been
arrived at without people first having talked a dozen reams of nonsense,
even ten dozen reams of it." Let's make this a centerpiece of your
current strategy, Sagittarius. Just assume that in order to ferret out the
core insights that will fuel your next transformations, you may need to
speak and hear a lot of babble.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): At the 2013 Grammy Awards, actor Neil
Patrick Harris introduced the band Fun this way: "As legendary gangster
rap icon Katharine Hepburn once said, if you follow all the rules, you miss
all the fun." Everything about that vignette is a template for the approach
you can use now with great success. You should gravitate toward festive
events and convivial gatherings. Whenever possible, you should sponsor,
activate, and pave the way for fun. Toward that end, it's totally
permissible for you to tell amusing stories that aren't exactly factual and
that bend the rules not quite to the breaking point.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Some spiritual traditions regard the ego as a
bad thing. They imply it's the source of suffering -- a chronically infected
pustule that must be regularly lanced and drained. I understand this
argument. The ego has probably been the single most destructive force in
the history of civilization. But I also think it's our sacred duty to redeem
and rehabilitate it. After all, we often need our egos in order to get
important things done. Our egos give us the confidence to push through
difficulties. They motivate us to work hard to achieve our dreams. Your
assignment, Aquarius, is to beautify your ego as you strengthen it. Build
your self-esteem without stirring up arrogance. Love yourself brilliantly,
not neurotically. Express your talents in ways that stimulate others to
express their talents.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Dr. Seuss wrote his children's books in
English, but he liked to stretch the limits of his native tongue. "You'll be
surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start
poking around," he said. One of the extra letters he found out there was
"yuzz," which he used to spell the made-up word "yuzz-a-ma-tuzz." I
recommend that you take after Seuss -- not only in the way you speak,
but also in the ways you work, play, love, dream, and seek adventure. It's
time to explore the territory beyond your comfort zone.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I'm not a big fan of fear. It gets far more
attention than it deserves. The media and entertainment industries
practically worship it, and many of us allow ourselves to be riddled with
toxic amounts of the stuff. Having said that, though, I do want to put in a
good word for fear. Now and then, it keeps us from doing stupid things. It
prods us to be wiser and act with more integrity. It forces us to see the
truth when we might prefer to wallow in delusion. Now is one of those
times for you, Aries. Thank your fear for helping to wake you up.
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YOU NEED MAGIC
Every day, you have to wade through a relentless surge of soul-less
information. The experience tends to shut down your sense of wonder.
Every day, you're over-exposed to narratives that have been sucked free
of delight and mystery. That's why you have to make strenuous efforts to
keep your world enchanted.
I aspire to contribute to the sacred cause of feeding your sense of
wonder and enchantment. That's one of my main motivations for offering
you my free horoscopes, book excerpts, and music.
If you ever want more of that stuff, and think it's worth paying for, try
out my Expanded Audio Horoscopes. They're four-to-five-minute
meditations on the current state of your destiny.
Go here to access them: http://RealAstrology.com/
You can also listen over the phone by calling
1-877-873-4888
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Poetry might be defined as the clear
expression of mixed feelings," wrote W.H. Auden. If that's true, then your
job is to be a poet right now. You seem to be awash in a hubbub of
paradoxical inclinations, complete with conflicting desires and mismatched
truths. There's no shame or blame in that. But you do have a
responsibility to communicate your complexity with honesty and
precision. If you can manage that, people will treat you with affection and
give you extra slack. They might even thank you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What can you do to improve your flow? Are
there obstructions in your environment that keep you from having a more
fluidic rhythm? Do you harbor negative beliefs that make it harder for life
to bestow its natural blessings on you? Now is the time to take care of
glitches like these, Gemini. You have more power than usual to eliminate
constrictions and dissolve fixations. Your intuition will be strong when you
use it to drum up graceful luck for your personal use. Be aggressive. Be
bold. Be lyrical. It's high time for you to slip into a smooth groove.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the beginning of his novel *The White
Castle,* Orhan Pamuk offers this meditation: "To imagine that a person
who intrigues us has access to a way of life unknown and all the more
attractive for its mystery, to believe that we will begin to live only
through the love of that person—what else is this but the birth of great
passion?" How do you respond to this provocative statement, Cancerian?
Here are my thoughts: On the one hand, maybe it's not healthy for you to
fantasize that a special someone can give you what you can't give
yourself. On the other hand, believing this is true may inspire you to take
an intriguing risk that would catalyze invigorating transformations. Which
is it? Now is a good time to ruminate on these matters.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Canadians Tommy Larkin and Stephen Goosney
are biological brothers, but they were adopted by different families when
they were young. They lost touch for almost 30 years. Once they began
looking for each other, it didn't take long to be reunited. Nor did they
have to travel far to celebrate. It turns out that they were living across
the street from each other in the same small town in Newfoundland. I
foresee a metaphorically similar experience in your future, Leo. When you
get reconnected to your past, you will find that it has been closer than
you realized.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): This will be an excellent week for you to talk
with yourself -- or rather, with yourselves. I'm envisioning in-depth
conversations between your inner saint and your inner evil twin . . .
between the hard worker and the lover of creature comforts . . . between
the eager-to-please servant of the greater good and the self-sufficient
smartie who's dedicated to personal success. I think that in at least some
of these confabs, you should speak every word out loud. You should
gesture with your hands and express colorful body language. It's prime
time for your different sub-personalities to get to know each other
better.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the coming week you will probably have
more luck than usual if you play keno, craps, blackjack, bingo, or roulette.
People who owe you money will be inclined to pay you back, so you might
want to give them a nudge. I won't be surprised if you find a $20 bill lying
on the sidewalk or if a store cashier accidentally gives you way too much
change. In the wake of these tendencies, your main assignment is to be
alert for opportunities to increase your cash flow. For example, if you
wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for boosting your financial
fortunes, I hope you will have a pen and notebook by the bed to write it
down.
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Homework: Make two fresh promises to yourself: one that's easy to keep
and one that's at the edge of your capacity to live up to.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2013 Rob Brezsny
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