Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
October 21, 2015
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See a pretty version of this newsletter: http://bit.ly/1PuqGEt
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In early 2015, I wrote horoscopes for the coming year -- previews of the
issues I thought you'd be facing and the opportunities that would come
your way in the months ahead. I invite you to review them now and let me
know if they were useful. http://bit.ly/BigView2015
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If you'd ever like to make a contribution to me via Paypal, here's where to
do it: http://bit.ly/TipsforRob
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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. 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.
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2. Become a rapturist, which is the opposite of a terrorist: Conspire to
unleash blessings on unsuspecting recipients, causing them to feel good.
Before bringing your work as a rapturist to strangers, practice with two
close companions. Offer them each a gift that fires up their ambitions. It
should not be a practical necessity or consumer fetish, but rather a
provocative tool or toy. Give them an imaginative boon they've been
hesitant to ask for, a beautiful thing that expands their self-image, a
surprising intervention that says, "I love the way you move me."
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3. 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.
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4. What is the holiest river in the world? Some might say the Ganges in
India. Others would propose the Jordan River or the River Nile. But I say
the holiest river is the one that's closest to where you are right now.
Go to that river and commune with it. Throw a small treasure into it as an
offering. Next, find a holy sidewalk to walk on, praise the holiness in a bus
driver, kiss a holy tree, and shop at a holy store.
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5. Have you ever seen the game called "Playing the Dozens"? Participants
compete in the exercise of hurling witty insults at each other. Here are
some examples: "You're so dumb, if you spoke your mind you'd be
speechless." "Your mother is so old, she was a waitress at the Last
Supper." "You're so ugly, you couldn't get laid if you were a brick."
I invite you to rebel against any impulse in you that resonates with the
spirit of "Playing the Dozens." Instead, try a new game, "Paying the
Tributes." Choose worthy targets and ransack your imagination to come
up with smart, true, and amusing praise about them.
The best stuff will be specific to the person you're addressing, not
generic, but here are some prototypes: "You're so far-seeing, you can
probably catch a glimpse of the back of your own head." "You're so
ingenious, you could use your nightmares to get rich and famous." "Your
mastery of pronoia is so artful, you could convince me to love my worst
enemy."
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6. Salvador Dalí once staged a party in which guests were told to come
disguised as characters from their nightmares. Do the reverse. Throw a
bash in which everyone is invited to arrive dressed as a character from
the most glorious dream they remember.
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7. 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.
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8. "You can't wait for inspiration," proclaimed writer Jack London. "You
have to go after it with a club." That sounds too violent to me, though I
agree in principle that aggressiveness is the best policy in one's
relationship with inspiration.
Try this: Don't wait for inspiration. Go after it with a butterfly net,
lasso, sweet treats, fishing rod, court orders, beguiling smells, and sincere
flattery.
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9. 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.
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
All of this week's Pronoiac Resources come from the site Good News
Network, an abundant source of stories about all the wonders and marvels
that are happening on the planet right now:
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
She Had No Medical Degree or PhD But Just Won Nobel Prize for Medicine.
http://tinyurl.com/oo9zr3x
City Pays Homeless to Learn Job Skills While Beautifying Riverbanks.
http://tinyurl.com/oap7tcu
Malawi Celebrates Dramatic Drop in Child Mortality–280,000 Kids Saved.
http://tinyurl.com/q4fleqv
(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 22
Copyright 2015 by Rob Brezsny
http://FreeWillAstrology.com
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Are you an inventor? Is it your specialty to
create novel gadgets and machines? Probably not. But in the coming
weeks you may have metaphorical resemblances to an inventor. I suspect
you will have an enhanced ability to dream up original approaches and find
alternatives to conventional wisdom. You may surprise yourself with your
knack for finding ingenious solutions to long-standing dilemmas. To prime
your instincts, I'll provide three thoughts from inventor Thomas Edison. 1.
"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." 2. "Just
because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean
it's useless." 3. "Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait."
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Some unraveling is inevitable. What has
been woven together must now be partially unwoven. But please refrain
from thinking of this mysterious development as a setback. Instead,
consider it an opportunity to reexamine and redo any work that was a bit
hasty or sloppy. Be glad you will get a second chance to fix and refine
what wasn't done quite right the first time. In fact, I suggest you preside
over the unraveling yourself. Don't wait for random fate to accomplish it.
And for best results, formulate an intention to regard everything that
transpires as a blessing.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "A waterfall would be more impressive if it
flowed the other way," said Irish author Oscar Wilde. I appreciate the wit,
but don't agree with him. A plain old ordinary waterfall, with foamy surges
continually plummeting over a precipice and crashing below, is sufficiently
impressive for me. What about you, Capricorn? In the coming days, will
you be impatient and frustrated with plain old ordinary marvels and
wonders? Or will you be able to enjoy them just as they are?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Years ago, I moved into a rental house with
my new girlfriend, whom I had known for six weeks. As we fell asleep the
first night, a song played in my head: "Nature's Way," by the band Spirit. I
barely knew it and had rarely thought of it before. And yet there it was,
repeating its first line over and over: "It's nature's way of telling you
something's wrong." Being a magical thinker, I wondered if my
unconscious mind was telling me a secret about my love. But I rejected
that possibility; it was too painful to contemplate. When we broke up a
few months later, however, I wished I had paid attention to that early
alert. I mention this, Aquarius, because I suspect your unconscious mind
will soon provide you with a wealth of useful information, not just through
song lyrics but other subtle signals, as well. Listen up! At least some of it
will be good news, not cautionary like mine.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): When I advise you to GET NAKED, I don't
mean it in a literal sense. Yes, I will applaud if you're willing to experiment
with brave acts of self-revelation. I will approve of you taking risks for the
sake of the raw truth. But getting arrested for indecent exposure might
compromise your ability to carry out those noble acts. So, no, don't
actually take off all your clothes and wander through the streets. Instead,
surprise everyone with brilliant acts of surrender and vulnerability. Gently
and sweetly and poetically tell the Purveyors of Unholy Repression to take
their boredom machine and shove it up their humdrum.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to the online etymological
dictionary, the verb "fascinate" entered the English language in the 16th
century. It was derived from the Middle French *fasciner* and the Latin
*fascinatus,* which are translated as "bewitch, enchant, put under a
spell." In the 19th century, "fascinate" expanded in meaning to include
"delight, attract, hold the attention of." I suspect you will soon have
experiences that could activate both senses of "fascinate." My advice is
to get the most out of your delightful attractions without slipping into
bewitchment. Is that even possible? It will require you to exercise fine
discernment, but yes, it is.
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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.
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"I always feel like I know myself better after listening to your audio
'scopes."
-June R., Austin, TX
"Your audio horoscopes calm me down when I'm too manic and pep me up
when I'm down."
-Arthur T., Cleveland, OH
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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): One of the largest machines in the world is a
"bucket wheel excavator" in Kazakhstan. It's a saw that weighs 45,000
tons and has a blade the size of a four-story building. If you want to slice
through a mountain, it's perfect for the job. Indeed, that's what it's used
for over in Kazakhstan. Right now, Taurus, I picture you as having a
metaphorical version of this equipment. That's because I think you have
the power to rip open a clearing through a massive obstruction that has
been in your way.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock did a daily ritual to
remind him of life's impermanence. After drinking his tea each morning, he
flung both cup and saucer over his shoulder, allowing them to smash on
the floor. I don't recommend that you adopt a comparable custom for
long-term use, but it might be healthy and interesting to do so for now.
Are you willing to outgrow and escape your old containers? Would you
consider diverging from formulas that have always worked for you? Are
there any unnecessary taboos that need to be broken? Experiment with
the possible blessings that might come by not clinging to the illusion of
"permanence."
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Terence was a comic playwright in ancient
Rome. He spoke of love in ways that sound modern. It can be capricious
and weird, he said. It may provoke indignities and rouse difficult emotions.
Are you skilled at debate? Love requires you to engage in strenuous
discussions. Peace may break out in the midst of war, and vice versa.
Terence's conclusion: If you seek counsel regarding the arts of love, you
may as well be asking for advice on how to go mad. I won't argue with
him. He makes good points. But I suspect that in the coming weeks you
will be excused from most of those crazy-making aspects. The sweet and
smooth sides of love will predominate. Uplift and inspiration are more
likely than angst and bewilderment. Take advantage of the grace period!
Put chaos control measures in place for the next time Terence's version
of love returns.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the coming weeks, you will have a special
relationship with the night. When the sun goes down, your intelligence will
intensify, as will your knack for knowing what's really important and
what's not. In the darkness, you will have an enhanced capacity to make
sense of murky matters lurking in the shadows. You will be able to
penetrate deeper than usual, and get to the bottom of secrets and
mysteries that have kept you off-balance. Even your grimy fears may be
transformable if you approach them with a passion for redemption.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): New friends and unexpected teachers are in
your vicinity, with more candidates on the way. There may even be
potential comrades who could eventually become flexible collaborators
and catalytic guides. Will you be available for the openings they offer? Will
you receive them with fire in your heart and mirth in your eyes? I worry
that you may not be ready if you are too preoccupied with old friends and
familiar teachers. So please make room for surprises.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): More than any other sign, you have an ability
to detach yourself from life's flow and analyze its complexities with cool
objectivity. This is mostly a good thing. It enhances your power to make
rational decisions. On the other hand, it sometimes devolves into a
liability. You may become so invested in your role as observer that you
refrain from diving into life's flow. You hold yourself apart from it,
avoiding both its messiness and vitality. But I don't foresee this being a
problem in the coming weeks. In fact, I bet you will be a savvy watcher
even as you're almost fully immersed in the dynamic flux.
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Send pictures of your favorite scarecrows or descriptions of your dreams
of protection to me at Truthrooster@gmail.com.
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2015 Rob Brezsny
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