Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
March 16, 2016
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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 are excerpts.
THE OUTLAW CATALOG OF CAGEY OPTIMISM:
COMPASSIONATE DISCRIMINATION. Having astute judgment without being
scornfully judgmental; seeing difficult truths about a situation or person
without closing your heart or feeling superior. In the words of Alan Jones:
having the ability "to smell a rat without allowing your ability to discern
deception sour your vision of the glory and joy that is everyone's
birthright."
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COMIC INTROSPECTION. Being fully aware of your own foibles while still
loving yourself tenderly and maintaining confidence in your ability to give
your specific genius to the world. To paraphrase Alan Jones, Dean of
Grace Cathedral: following the Byzantine ploys of your ego with
compassion and humor as it tries to make itself the center of everything,
even the center of its own suffering and struggle.
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NOT HAVING TO BE RIGHT. Fostering an ability, even a willingness, to be
proven wrong about one of your initial perceptions or pet theories; having
an eagerness to gather information that may change your mind about
something you have fervently believed; cultivating a tendency to enjoy
being corrected, especially about ideas that are negative or hostile.
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RELENTLESS UNPRETENTIOUSNESS. Possessing a strong determination to
not take yourself too seriously, not take your cherished beliefs too
literally, and not take other people's ideas about you too personally.
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JOYFUL POIGNANCE. Feeling buoyantly joyful about the beauty and
mystery of life while remaining aware of the sadness, injustices, wounds,
and future fears that form the challenges in an examined life.
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- More healthy states of mind are listed in The Outlaw Catalog of Cagey
Optimism: http://bit.ly/Zdyxc9
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"The most powerful starting point for any endeavor is not the question
'What do I want?', but 'What does Life (God, Consciousness) want from
me? How do I serve the whole?'"
-Eckhart Tolle
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"From a Sufi perspective, the whole universe is a phenomenon of desire.
The Divine desire pervades all things and beings, empowering each
according to its capacity. For the mystic, the truest education is the
education of desire. By means of this education the indwelling Divine
desire is liberated from the constraints of the ego and becomes a force
for the transfiguration of the world."
- Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, http://tinyurl.com/ck4sdjf
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"That in a person which cannot be domesticated is not his evil but his
goodness."
- Antonio Porchia
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UNSOLVED PROBLEMS ARE GREAT TEACHERS
"There is nothing you can learn from as much as a problem you cannot
fully solve. Unsolved problems can be some of the greatest tormentors,
but also the greatest teachers. Unsolved problems keep the mind hungry
and the eyes open.
"Small-minded people have found premature, final answers to great
unresolved questions. Absolutisms and fundamentalisms abound for those
who do not have the inner strength to live with unsolved problems.
"Many of the greatest discoveries and epiphanies have occurred as partial
solutions to problems never fully solved. The ego, of course, desires
closure, but some life problems are only closed with the coffin lid. Our
desire to pursue unresolved problems is a major part of what keeps us
alive and searching.
"One of the greatest life skills and signs of maturity is the ability to live
with ambivalence, ambiguity and unresolved problems. As Deng Ming Dao
says, 'Never underestimate the power of a partial solution.' It takes
wisdom, courage and inner strength to live with unresolved problems and
to resist trying to close them prematurely."
"Take another look at the unsolved problems you live with and recognize
their inestimable value to your soul. Allow your desire to solve them to
draw you into the misty labyrinth of life. And as you wind your way
though the twists and turns, pause to appreciate some of the partial
solutions, and remember that the journey is the destination."
- Jonathan Zap - excerpted from http://tinyurl.com/arx5tem
Check out Jonathan Zap's online do-it-yourself oracle:
http://zaporacle.com/online-image-oracle/
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DREAMING TRUE
According to biologist Francis Crick, our nightly dreams consist of nothing
more than hallucinations produced as the brain flushes out metabolic
wastes.
Of the many arguments that can be mustered against this odd theory,
none is more forceful than the life of Harriet Tubman. After escaping from
slavery in 1849, she helped organize the Underground Railroad and
personally led 300 slaves to freedom.
Few history books choose to convey the fact that she sometimes relied
on her dreams to provide specific information about where to find safe
houses, helpers, and passages through dangerous territory. Robert Moss
tells the whole story in his book "Dreaming True."
http://tinyurl.com/c2jby64
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
Berlin Turns Former Secret Police HQ into Home for 500 refugees
http://tinyurl.com/hj9g3xl
France Votes to Force Supermarkets to Give Away Unsold Food
http://tinyurl.com/jld3x7m
President of Gambia Bans Female Genital Mutilation
http://tinyurl.com/jz33qa6
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They aren't advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning March 17
Copyright 2016 by Rob Brezsny
http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/
Grammar key: Asterisks equal *italics*
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "The greatest illusion is not religion," says
aphorist Michael Lipsey. "It's waking up in the morning imagining how
much you're going to get done today." But even if that's often true,
Pisces, I suspect that you have the power to refute it in the coming
weeks. Your ability to accomplish small wonders will be at a peak. Your
knack for mastering details and acting with practical acumen may be
unprecedented. For the immediate future, then, I predict that you'll
largely be able to get done what you imagine you can get done.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Artist Steven Spasuk works exclusively with an
unusual medium: soot from candles and torches. He spreads the stuff
across a blank canvas, then uses various instruments to sculpt the
accidental blobs into definitive forms. I've seen the results, and they're
both well-done and intriguing. What would be the metaphorical equivalent,
in your world, of using soot to make beautiful and interesting things? I
think you're primed to turn waste into building blocks, rot into splendor,
and lead into gold. (See Spazuk's work at spazuk.com.)
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Carl Sagan said that science thrives on "two
seemingly contradictory attitudes: an openness to new ideas, no matter
how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny
of all ideas, old and new." Whether or not you are a scientist, Taurus, I
recommend that you practice this approach in the coming weeks. It's the
tool that's most likely to keep you centered and free of both rigidity and
illusion. As Sagan concluded, this is "how deep truths are winnowed from
deep nonsense."
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Excess on occasion is exhilarating," said British
author W. Somerset Maugham. "It prevents moderation from acquiring the
deadening effect of a habit." Now would be an excellent time to take that
advice to heart, Gemini. According to my analysis of the astrological
omens, you not only have a license to engage in rowdy fun and
extravagant pleasures; it's your sacred duty. So get out there and treat
yourself to an orgy of naughty adventures -- or at least a celebration of
meaningful thrills. You can return to the rigors of discipline and order once
you have harvested the healthy benefits that will come from escaping
them.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): At one point in Friedrich Nietzsche's book
*Thus Spoke Zarathustra,* the hero is having a conversation with himself.
"You have wanted to pet every monster," he says. "A whiff of warm
breath, a little soft tuft on the paw -- and at once you were ready to love
and to lure it." If I were you, Cancerian, I would regard that type of
behavior as forbidden in the coming weeks. In fact, I will ask you not to
pet any monsters at all -- not even the cute ones; not even the beasties
and rascals and imps that have slight resemblances to monsters. It's time
for maximum discernment and caution. (P.S.: One of the monsters may
ultimately become a non-monstrous ally if you are wary toward it now.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): On a social media site, I posted the following
quote from self-help teacher Byron Katie: "Our job is unconditional love.
The job of everyone else in our life is to push our buttons." One
commenter took issue with this. "'Pushing buttons' is a metaphor that's
long past its expiration date," she wrote. "Can't you come up with
something fresher?" So I did. Here are a few potential substitutes for
"push our buttons": "tweak our manias" . . . "prank our obsessions" . . .
"glitter-bomb our biases" . . . "squeeze our phobias" . . . "badger our
compulsions" . . . "seduce our repressions" . . . "prick our dogmas."
Whichever expression you prefer, Leo, find a graceful way to embrace
your fate: Your current job is unconditional love. The job of everyone else
in your life is to tweak your manias and prick your dogmas.
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FEELING JOY STIMULATES YOUR COMPASSION?
Assume that your drive to experience pleasure isn't a barrier to your
spiritual growth, but is in fact essential to it. Proceed on the hypothesis
that cultivating joy can make you a more ethical and compassionate
person. Imagine that feeling good has something important to teach you
every day.
For inspiration in practicing this approach, tune in to your EXPANDED
AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're four-to-five-minute meditations on the
current state of your destiny.
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.
The Expanded Audio Horoscopes work on most smart phones and tablets.
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"I don't much believe in astrology. But that doesn't seem to get in the
way of me deriving a whole lot of benefits from your expanded audio
horoscopes."
- A. Arrosto, Indianapolis
"You have an amazing aptitude for cutting through the lies I tell myself.
Thanks for the gentle shocks."
- T. Preneris, Toronto
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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the coming weeks, you will have maximum
power to revise and reinvigorate your approach to cultivating intimate
relationships. To aid your quest, I offer this paraphrased advice from
Andrew Boyd: Almost every one of us seeks a special partner who is just
right. But there is no right person, just different flavors of wrong. Why?
Because you yourself are "wrong" in some ways -- you have demons and
flaws and problems. In fact, these "wrongs" are essential components of
who you are. When you ripen into this understanding, you're ready to find
and be with your special counterpart. He or she has the precise set of
problems you need -- is the person who is wrong for you in just the right
ways. (See Boyd's original quote: tinyurl.com/boydquote.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In her book *The Winter Vault,* Anne Michaels
says, "We become ourselves when things are given to us or when things
are taken away." If she's right, does it mean we should be grateful for
those times when things are taken away? Should we regard moments of
loss as therapeutic prods that compel us to understand ourselves better
and to create ourselves with a fiercer determination? Meditate on these
possibilities, Libra. In the meantime, I'm pleased to announce that the
things-getting-taken-away period of your cycle is winding down. Soon
you'll begin a new phase, when you can become a deeper, stronger
version of yourself because of the things that are given to you.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "I'll make love when the lust subsides," sings
Denitia, one-half of the electro-pop band Denitia and Sene. That would be
a good motto for you to play around with in the coming days, Scorpio --
in both literal and metaphorical ways. I'll enjoy seeing how your emotional
intelligence ripens as the white-hot passion of recent weeks evolves into a
more manageable warmth. As fun as the intensity has been, it has blinded
you to some of the possibilities for collaborative growth that have been
emerging. You may now be ready to explore and appreciate sweeter,
subtler pleasures.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "The poems I have loved the most are
those I have understood the least," said T. S. Eliot. I'm going to steal and
expand upon his idea for the purpose of giving you an accurate
horoscope. In the coming days, Sagittarius, I suspect that the experiences
you love most will be those that you understand the least. Indeed, the
experiences you NEED the most will be those that surprise and mystify
and intrigue you. Luckily, life will be ingenious in bypassing your analytical
intelligence so as to provide you with rich emotional stimuli for your soul.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn painter Henri Matisse made the
following testimony about his creative process: "At each stage I reach a
balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find that there is a weakness
in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the
weakness -- I re-enter through the breach -- and I reconceive the whole.
Thus everything becomes fluid again." I recommend this approach to you
in the coming days, Capricorn. You've been making decent progress on
your key project. To keep up the good work, you should now find where
the cracks are, and let them teach you how to proceed from here.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "We all lead three lives," said Austrian
novelist Thomas Bernhard, "an actual one, an imaginary one, and the one
we are not aware of." I suspect you'll get big glimpses of your third life in
the coming weeks, Aquarius: the one you're normally not aware of. It
might freak you out a bit, maybe unleash a few blasts of laughter and
surges of tears. But if you approach these revelations with reverent
curiosity, I bet they will be cleansing and catalytic. They are also likely to
make you less entranced by your imaginary life and better grounded in
your actual life.
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Homework: Identify your fondest childhood memory, and recreate in the
present time the feeling you had back then. Testify at
Freewillastrology.com.
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Submissions sent to Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2016 Rob Brezsny
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