Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
June 10, 2015
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/1eXJNaq
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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
The e-book is available at http://bit.ly/eePronoia
Below are excerpts.
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THE GREATEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE
The greatest gift you can give might be the gift that you yourself were
never given. Give that gift.
The most valuable service you have to offer your fellow humans may be
the service you have always wished were performed for you. Offer that
service.
An experience that wounded you could move you to help people who've
been similarly wounded. Heal yourself by healing others.
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IT'S ALWAYS THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD
It's always the beginning of the world.
Even if you don't call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a
dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh
ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to
life's ceaseless invitation to change.
It's to this part of you—the restless, inventive spirit—that I address the
following: Unleash yourself! Don't be satisfied with the world the way it is;
don't sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of
the mediocre status quo.
Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust
for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it's in
greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul's
code.
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SHADOW BLESSINGS
Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy that's guaranteed to keep you well
supplied with blessings.
What kind of blessings? Ten million dollars, a gorgeous physique, a perfect
marriage, a luxurious home, and high status?
Maybe. But it's just as likely that the blessings will be interesting
surprises, dizzying adventures, gifts you hardly know what to do with, and
conundrums that dare you to get smarter.
Novelist William Vollman referred to these types of blessings when he said
that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is grappling with a
complicated, tricky problem that you don't know how to solve."
Sculptor Henry Moore had a similar idea. He said, "The secret of life is to
have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you
bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the
most important thing is -- it must be something you cannot possibly do."
So in other words, pronoia does not guarantee that you will forevermore
be free of all difficult experiences.
It doesn't ask you to pretend that everything is sweet and harmonious all
the time.
On the contrary, when you embody the spirit of pronoia, you build your
optimism by loving your challenges, not repressing them.
You know that your problems are gifts from the Goddess that are
designed to make you smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier.
You welcome each fresh puzzle as a potential source of your future bliss,
as an exciting teaching that will usher you to your next breakthrough.
Now here's a spell to commit pronoia. I invite you to say it with me.
Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within me;
Opening to my loss and pain and ignorance,
I remember who I am and what I'm here for.
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me,
Each condition I welcome transforms me
and becomes itself transformed
into the blessing it always was.
Listen to this piece here: http://bit.ly/1dNU0Gf
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
A man reduced crime in his Oakland neighborhood by installing a Buddha
statue on a median strip.
http://tinyurl.com/qxqoet3
In part because of the vacuum left by the closing of big box stores and in
part because of the groundswell behind the "Shop Local" movement,
independent bookstores are actually on the rise. The American
Booksellers Association reported an eight percent growth in sales in
2012, and those numbers have continued to steadily, modestly climb.
http://tinyurl.com/mqv5hgp
A massive study on solar power by researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology came to two main conclusions: Solar energy holds
the best potential for meeting the planet's long-term energy needs while
reducing greenhouse gases and federal and state governments must do
more to promote its development.
ttp://tinyurl.com/ozyqtcx
(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 June 11
Copyright 2015 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I think it'll be better if you don't engage in
much sacrifice, compromise, or surrender in the next two weeks. Normally
they are valuable tools to have at your disposal, but for now they may
tend to be counterproductive. Judging from the current astrological
omens, I suspect you need to be more commanding than usual, more
confident in your vision of how to take action with maximum integrity. It's
time for you to draw deeper from the source of your own power, and
express it with extra grace and imagination.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You will soon be escaping -- or maybe
"graduating" is the right word -- from your interesting trials and
tribulations. In honor of this cathartic transition, I suggest you consider
doing a ritual. It can be a full-fledged ceremony you conduct with somber
elegance, or a five-minute psychodrama you carry out with boisterous
nonchalance. It will be a celebration of your ability to outlast the forces of
chaos and absurdity, and an expression of gratitude for the resources
you've managed to call on in the course of your struggle. To add an extra
twist, you could improvise a rowdy victory prayer that includes this quote
adapted from Nietzsche: "I throw roses into the abyss and say: 'Here is
my thanks to the monster who did not devour me.'"
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I propose a Friends Cleanse. It would be a three-
week-long process of reviewing your support team and web of
connections. If you feel up for the challenge, start this way: Take
inventory of your friendships and alliances. If there are any that have
faded or deteriorated, make a commitment to either fix them or else
phase them out. Here's the second stage of the Friends Cleanse: Give
dynamic boosts to those relationships that are already working well. Take
them to the next level of candor and synergy.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): After Walt Whitman published *Leaves of
Grass* in 1855, he made sure it would get the publicity he wanted. He
wrote anonymous reviews of his own book and submitted them to several
publications, all of which printed them. "An American bard at last!" began
the glowing review that appeared in one newspaper. According to my
reading of the astrological omens, Virgo, you now have license to engage
in similar behavior. You will incur no karma, nor will you tempt fate, if you
tout your own assets in the coming weeks. Try to make your bragging
and self-promotion as charming as possible, of course. But don't be timid
about it.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If you carry out the assignments I recommend,
you will boost your charisma, your chutzpah, and your creativity. Here's
the first one: Try something impossible every day. Whether or not you
actually accomplish it isn't important. To merely make the effort will
shatter illusions that are holding you back. Here's your second
assignment: Break every meaningless rule that tempts you to take
yourself too seriously. Explore the art of benevolent mischief. Here's the
third: Clear out space in your fine mind by shedding one dogmatic belief,
two unprovable theories, and three judgmental opinions. Give yourself the
gift of fertile emptiness.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the 16th century, roguish French author
Francois Rabelais published a comic novel entitled *The Life of Gargantua
and of Pantagruel.* In the course of his satirical story, a learned teacher
named Epistemon takes a visit to the afterlife and back. While on the
other side, he finds famous dead heroes employed in humble tasks.
Alexander the Great is making a meager living from mending old socks.
Cleopatra is hawking onions in the streets. King Arthur cleans hats and
Helen of Troy supervises chambermaids. In accordance with the
Rabelaisian quality of your current astrological aspects, Scorpio, I invite
you to meditate on the reversals you would like to see in your own life.
What is first that maybe should be last? And vice versa? What's
enormous that should be small? And vice versa? What's proud that should
be humble? And vice versa?
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LOVE YOUR LIFE! How's your fight for freedom going? Are you making
progress in liberating yourself from your unconscious obsessions, bad
habits, and conditioned responses? Are you turning out to be the hero of
your own life?
For assistance and inspiration, tune in to my EXPANDED AUDIO
HOROSCOPES.
These forecasts are different in tone and format from the written
horoscopes you read here in the newsletter. They're longer and more
leisurely in tone. They tend to bring out more of the patient counselor in
me, and have a bit less of the poet.
To listen to your Expanded Audio Horoscope online, go to
http://RealAstrology.com.
Register and/or log in through the main page.
You can also listen over the phone by calling 1-877-873-4888.
The cost is $6 per sign on the Web (discounts available for bulk
purchases), or $1.99 per minute by phone. Each forecast is 4-5 minutes
long.
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
"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
"When I listen to your audio 'scopes, my free will lights up." - Alex D., Los
Angeles
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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There's no better time than now to ask
the big question or seek the big opening or explore the big feeling. People
are not only as receptive as they will ever be, they are also more likely to
understand what you really mean and what you are trying to accomplish.
Which door has been forever locked? Which poker face hasn't blinked or
flinched in many moons? Which heart of darkness hasn't shown a crack of
light for as long as you can remember? These are frontiers worth
revisiting now, when your ability to penetrate the seemingly impenetrable
is at a peak.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The writer Donald Barthelme once came to
see the artist Elaine de Kooning in her New York studio. Midway through
the visit, loud crashes and bangs disturbed the ceiling above them. De
Kooning wasn't alarmed. "Oh, that's Herbert thinking," she said, referring
to the metal sculptor Herbert Ferber, who worked in a studio directly
above hers. This is the kind of thinking I'd love to see you unleash in the
coming days, Capricorn. Now is not a time for mild, cautious, delicate
turns of thought, but rather for vigorous meditations, rambunctious
speculations, and carefree musings. In your quest for practical insight, be
willing to make some noise. (The story comes from Barthelme's essay
"Not-Knowing.")
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sidney Lumet was an American director who
worked on 50 films, including 14 that were nominated for Academy
Awards, like *Network* and *Dog Day Afternoon.* Actors loved to work
with him, even though he was a stickler for thorough rehearsals. Intense
preparation, he felt, was the key to finding the "magical accidents" that
allow an actor's highest artistry to emerge. I advocate a similar strategy
for you, Aquarius. Make yourself ready, through practice and discipline, to
capitalize fully on serendipitous opportunities and unexpected
breakthroughs when they arrive.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "It is not only the most difficult thing to know
oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too," said American writer Josh
Billings. I agree with him. It's not impossible to solve the mystery of who
you are, but it can be hard work that requires playful honesty, cagey
tenacity, and an excellent sense of humor. The good news is that these
days it's far less difficult and inconvenient than usual for you to deepen
your self-understanding. So take advantage! To get started, why don't
you interview yourself? Go here to see some questions you could ask:
http://bit.ly/interviewyourself.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): "To look at a thing hard and straight and
seriously -- to fix it." Aries author Henry James said he wanted to do that
on a regular basis. He didn't want to be "arbitrary" or "mechanical" in his
efforts. I invite you to make this perspective one of your specialties in the
coming weeks, Aries. Pick out a tweaked situation you'd like to mend or a
half-spoiled arrangement you want to heal. Then pour your pure
intelligence into it. Investigate it with a luminous focus. Use all your tough
and tender insight to determine what needs to be transformed, and
transform it.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Drug expert Jonathan P. Caulkins estimates
that Americans are stoned on marijuana for more than 288 million hours
every week. A U.N. report on global drug use concluded that Canadians
consume weed at a similar rate. Among Europeans, Italians are number
one and the French are fourth. But I encourage you to avoid contributing
to these figures for the next twelve to fourteen days. In my astrological
opinion, it's time to be as sober and sensible and serious as you ever get.
You have the chance to make unprecedented progress on practical
matters through the power of your pure reasoning and critical thinking.
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Homework: Name two ways you think that everyone should be more like
you. FreeWillAstrology.com
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2015 Rob Brezsny
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